



PHILOLOGICAL PAPERS 

COMPRISING 

NOTES ON THE 

ANCIENT GOTHIC LANGUAGE 

Parts I and II 

AND 

SANSKRIT ROOTS AND ENGLISH DERIVATIONS 

Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. 

By J. A. PICTON, F.S.A., 

PRESIDENT 
TO WHICH IS ADDED, 

A-CHAPTER ON THE 

PHILOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURAL TERMS 

Read refore the Liverpool Architectural and Arch.eological Society, 



LIVERPOOL : 



PRINTED (FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION ONLY) 
BY T. BRAKELL, COOK STREET. 

1864. 






205449 
.'15 



TO 



PROFESSOR MAX MULLER, 



THE GREAT MASTER IN 



THE MODERN SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE, 



THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE, BY HIS KIND PERMISSION, 



,a&t rjespuifallg ^nxtxihzh. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Ancient Gothic Language, Paet 1 3 

Part 2 31 

Sanskrit Eoots and English Derivations , . . . 5? 

On the Philology op Architectural Terms 91 



THE 

ANCIENT GOTHIC LANGUAGE. 

Parts I and II, 



PART I 



At the recent meeting of the British Association in Man- 
chester, a paper was read by the chairman of the Ethnological 
Section, on the " History and Origin of Language," which 
attracted considerable notice, and was honoured by a leading 
article in the Times. The paper was remarkable, not so 
much for what it contained, as for what it did not contain. 
Views may differ, and it is quite competent for an essayist to 
deny all connexion between the languages of the East and 
those of Europe, and to treat the origin of language as a tiring 
altogether capricious and abnormal, but that a paper of the 
kind should be read at a scientific congress of the present day, 
adopting Adam Smith as a great authority in Philology, and 
utterly ignoring the progress of the last half- century, is indeed 
marvellous ; and still more so, that the hearers seem to have 
been quite as much at sea as the writer, nothing appearing in 
the report of the discussion to intimate that those who took 
part in it were at all familiar with the great works which have 
thrown so much light on Comparative Philology of late years. 
This is to be lamented, indicating, as it does, the feeble hold 
which the subject has taken on public attention in this 
country. In Germany, the case is very different. From the 
time when the two Schlegels first drew attention to the 
Sanskrit and Persian languages as throwing light on the 
origin of the European tongues, there has been a constant 
succession of able writers who have investigated with, a 
patience and profundity known only to the German race, the 



principles and relations of the various languages of Europe 
and the East. The works of Adelung, Bopp, the brothers 
Grimm, Lassen, Burnouf, Diefenbach, Meidinger, Graff, Zeuss, 
Pott, Gabelentz and Loebe, and others, have brought together 
a copious mass of materials, and thrown a flood of light on 
the nature, history, and connexion of language. In French, 
the works of Eaynouard, Kenan, Nodier, and especially of 
Professor Pictet of Geneva, deserve honorable mention. In 
our own country, Dr. Pritchard divides with the Schlegels the 
honour of having first introduced the subject. The late 
Professor H. "Wilson, and the present Professor Monier 
Williams have opened up the study of Sanskrit to the Eng- 
lish student. Dr. Donaldson has done much to illustrate the 
Philology of the classical languages. Dr. Latham has devoted 
himself to the illustration of our mother tongue. Bosworth, 
Thorpe, and Kemble, have rendered easy the study of the 
Anglo-Saxon, and Max Miiller, at the present day, stands in 
the van of the earnest students of the Science of Language, in 
its general aspects. 

From the mere desultory acquisition of separate languages, 
Philology begins to assume the character of one of the exact 
sciences. The keen searching power of modern analysis, 
brought to bear on the mass of facts previously accumulated, 
has gradually elicited order out of chaos, has demonstrated 
the existence of fixed law where irregularity and caprice had 
been held as dominant, and has discovered relationships here- 
tofore unconceived between the most distant races of mankind. 

If Geology teaches us to read the history of our planet in 
its wondrous revolutions, and in the succession of organised 
beings previous to the advent of mankind, the Science of Lan- 
guage takes up, so to speak, the thread of the narrative where 
Geology ceases to inform, and, far beyond the first dawn of 
history, reflects a light, obtainable from no other source, on 
the earliest condition and the progress of the human race. 



I am not about to enter on so wide a field as that of the 
origin of language. This may be difficult of solution, and, 
perhaps, impossible ; but the comparison and correlation of 
the various languages spoken by the human race, is a subject 
of inquiry clearly within our range, which has led to very 
important results, and may lead to still greater. 

The Gothic language, on which I propose to offer a few 
remarks, is interesting on many accounts. It is closely allied 
to our own tongue, and if not standing in the exact position of 
direct ancestor, it is, collaterally, very slightly removed from 
that relation. It occupies, also, a very central position in 
relation to the other Teutonic tongues ; connected with the 
Norse, the old German, the old Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon, it 
indicates the point from which they all radiated before settling 
into separate dialects. 

In examining any of the languages of the Teutonic family, 
in the earliest forms which have been handed down to us, 
nothing is more remarkable than the indications of degra- 
dation and breaking down which they present. Partial and 
imperfect inflexions; deficiencies and anomalies in the parts of 
speech, the syntax, and the modes of expression, meet us at 
every turn, whilst the regularity of other parts points to a 
period of completeness which no longer exists. In fact, the 
further we go back towards the original stem, the more pure 
and perfect does the language appear. The Anglo-Saxon having 
been the longest separated from the parent stem, presents the 
greatest amount of confusion and deficiency at the time when 
we first find it committed to writing. The Gothic, having 
been, probably, the earliest committed to writing, gives the 
strongest marks of its original complex character and eastern 
origin. There is little doubt that the Sanskrit, though not the 
parent tongue itself, stands in closer connexion with it than 
any other language. Now, the Gothic has, on the one hand, 
a strong affinity with the Sanskrit, and on the other, its 



6 

connexion with all the branches of the Indo -Teutonic family 
is close and palpable. Hence its value in relation to the 
origin and history of the English, German, and their sister 
tongues. Again, as the Gothic language was committed to 
writing before the separation of the North Gothic, or Scandi- 
navian, from the congenital dialects, we find the Suio- Gothic 
and Moeso- Gothic so closely resembling each other as to shew 
very clearly the intimate relation between them. The fact, 
also, of the language having been lost for several hundred 
years, and restored by the accidental discovery of a mutilated 
version of the Holy Scriptures, imparts a degree of interest to 
the study almost romantic. 

I will commence by a slight glance at the history of the 
people by whom the language was spoken. 

Beyond the slight notices in the classical writers, the prin- 
cipal original authorities are Cassiodorus, and Jordanes or 
Jornandes. The main facts of Gothic history have been so well 
epitomized by Gibbon in the tenth chapter of the " Decline 
and Fall," that a mere allusion is all that is necessary for our 
present purpose. Eejecting mere tradition, we find the Goths, 
in the time of Tacitus, established on the southern coast of the 
Baltic, near the mouth of the Vistula, associated with the 
Vandals, a kindred race. From thence, early in the third 
century, they appear to have moved eastward to the shores of 
the Euxine, and in the reign of the Emperor Philip, they 
crossed the Danube and invaded the Roman province of 
Dacia. At the same time, they extended their conquests to 
the north of the Euxine, and obtained possession of the 
Crimea, which they held for a long period. In the year 272, 
by consent of the Emperor Aurelian, the Ostrogoths settled 
in the provinces of Dacia and Moesia, and acquired habits of 
a more permanent and civilised character. Towards the latter 
end of the fourth century, pressed by the advancing hordes of 
the Huns from the eastward, the bulk of the nation, under the 



name of Visigoths, or Western Goths, moved westward, and 
becoming embroiled with the decaying Roman Empire, carried 
devastation through the provinces, invading Italy and pene- 
trating as far as Gaul. The imperial city of Rome was sacked 
by Alaric ; but, for a short time, the fate of the Empire was 
postponed by an ignominious payment of tribute. The Visi- 
goths founded kingdoms in Aquitaine, and in Spain, and, it 
is probable, penetrated much further to the North. About 
489, the Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric, advanced from Mcesia 
into Italy, and founded the Gothic Italian kingdom, which 
flourished for about a century, being, in its turn, superseded 
by the Lombard invaders. 

The influence of the Goths in Europe during the fourth, 
fifth, and sixth centuries, was very powerful, somewhat resem- 
bling that of the Normans at a later period, but on a wider 
field. It was equally brilliant, but equally transient in its 
duration. 

The Ostrogoths, in Moesia, became a settled and cultivated 
people. It was here, about the year 360, that their Bishop 
Ulphilas made his translation of the Scriptures. Although 
this is nearly the sole remnant of their language and literature, 
there is reason to believe that the Goths were by no means 
the rude savages they are sometimes represented. According 
to Jordanes, poetry was cultivated among them, and the 
exploits of their heroes were celebrated in verse. Our Eng- 
lish words " song," and " lay," are of Gothic origin. They 
are represented as having a series of written laws, termed by 
the Latin writers " Bellagines ;" Gothic, Bi-lageins — tilings 
laid down, settled. They are also stated to have been 
instructed in natural and mental philosophy, logic, and 
astronomy. In addition to Bishop Ulphilas, we have the 
names of several Gothic writers of the sixth century, Atha- 
narit, Hildebald, Markomir. Cassiodorus and Jordanes, 
though they wrote in Latin, were both of the Gothic race. 



8 

The flourishing period of the Gothic language was only 
6hort. In Mcesia, the advancing tide of the Huns soon 
reduced the Goths to a subordinate people, hut the language 
continued to be employed. In the ninth century, we have 
the evidence of Wilfred Strabo that Gothic was still spoken, 
and divine service celebrated in the language in some of the 
provinces. Even in the sixteenth century, Olaus Eudbeck 
relates that traces of the Teutonic tongue still lingered in 
Wallachia. The settlers in the Crimea appear to have clung 
the longest to the language. The Brabant friar, William de 
Kubruquis or Kuysbroeck, who travelled in the country in 
the year 1253, gives this slight notice, inter quos erant multi 
Gothi, quorum idioma est Teutonicum. Guiseppe Barbaro, 
ambassador from the republic of Venice to Asoph, in 1436, 
mentions that the Gothic inhabitants spoke a Teutonic dialect, 
which a German servant in his employ was able to understand. 
Busbequius, who was ambassador from the German Emperor 
to Constantinople in 1557-64, states that he there made the 
acquaintance of two persons of the Gothic race, who were on 
a mission from the Crimea to the Ottoman Porte, and fur- 
nishes a list of words picked up from them. The most part of 
these are common to the German and Gothic, but some are, 
without doubt, pure Gothic. This is the last notice of the 
Gothic as a spoken language, and from this time all traces of 
it disappear. 

At the latter end of the sixteenth century, the manuscript 
called the Codex Argenteus was discovered by Antony Morillon, 
in the monastery of Werden in Westphalia. It is of quarto 
form, written on purple parchment, with gold and silver letters, 
and is supposed to be of the end of the fifth, or beginning of 
the sixth century, of Italian origin, at the period of the Gothic 
kingdom of Italy. Out of three hundred and twenty leaves, 
of which the MS. was originally composed, one hundred and 



9 

eighty-eight were remaining at the time of its discovery, since 
.which eleven leaves have been stolen. The Codex Argenteus 
contains only portions of the Gospels After passing through 
several hands, it was finally purchased in 1655, by Christina, 
Queen of Sweden, and deposited in the university of Upsala. 
Other MSS. have since been discovered at Wolfenbiittel, and 
in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, which extend the extant 
portion to nearly the whole of the New Testament, and a few 
fragments of the Old. Some difference of opinion existed 
amongst the learned at the time of the discovery as to the 
language of the MSS. and their dates, Lacroix and Wetstein 
maintaining that the language was that of the Franks. This 
question has been ably set at rest, with the aid of further 
discoveries, by Ihre and subsequent writers, who have fully 
established the integrity and authenticity of the MSS. The 
language was common to the several tribes of the Goths, the 
Gepidoe, Vandals, and Heruli, who, according to Procopins, 
all spoke the same tongue. * 

The first edition of Ulphilas was edited by Francis Junius, 
and published in two quarto volumes (Dort, 1665, and Ant- 
werp, 1 684) ; since that time many editions have issued from 
the German and Swedish press, the interest in the subject 
having greatly increased of late years, owing to the progress 
of philological inquiries. 

In our own country, some valuable observations and notes 
were contributed by Marshall to the first edition of Junius ; 
and, in 1 750, an edition commenced by Benzel was completed 
by Dr. Edward Lye, and published at Oxford. In the edition 
edited by Ihre, and published in 1 773, by Busching, of Berlin, 
some valuable critical observations are inserted by John 
Gordon, advocate, of Edinburgh. 

The learned Dr. George Hickes, at the latter end of the 

* " (pix)vr) fiia yoT$ruer] XiyojxkvT}." 



10 

seventeenth century, called public attention to the Gothic 
language.* 

During the last century, a single volume is the sole contri- 
bution of the English press to this subject. In 1807, the 
Gothic text of St. Matthew's Gospel was published with a 
translation by the Eev. S. Henshall. (London, 8vo., 1807.) f 
For the last half- century, during which the German press has 
been teeming with editions of the text and illustrations of the 
language, the subject appears, amongst ourselves, to have 
dropped altogether out of sight, and been forgotten. 

The question may very naturally be asked, what there is 
peculiar to the Gothic language which renders it more worthy 
of attention than any other Teutonic dialect, and what there 
is in it to repay the philological student for the time and 
effort bestowed on its acquisition. The question is a natural 
and proper one, and is capable of a satisfactory reply. 

The Indo-European languages, or branches of the great 
Aryan stock, as it is the custom of late to call them, are 
connected together by various links of similarity both of form 
and substance. Let us confine our attention at present to 
two of the leading families, the Classical and the Teutonic, 
the former embracing the Sanskrit, the Greek and Latin, with 
their derivative tongues, the latter comprising the Gothic, 
Old German, Old Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, with their 
modern descendants. Between these two families there is 
considerable connexion in the vocabulary, and in the grammar 
to a certain point, from which they diverge, until the traces 
of resemblance at last became faint and few. The classical 



* " Institutiones Grammaticae Anglo-Saxonicae et Mcesogothicse." 4 vols. 

Oxford, 1689. 

" Thesaurus Linguarum veterum Septentrionalium." 2 vols. fol. Oxford, 1705. 

+ Of this performance Gahelenlz and Loehe thus speak — •' Ad textus emenda- 
tionem non solum nihil eontulit, sed etiam falsis verborum distractionibus aut 
copulationibus, eum foede maculavit ; annotationes autem textui subjectse tam 
sunt perversee atque ineptse, ut quae commemorentur non sint dignaB." 



11 

tongues continued to cling to the original forms more or 
less modified, which are found fully developed in the Sanskrit. 
The Teutonic tongues present unmistakeable marks of abra- 
sion and degradation from their original condition, and of a 
re-formation, self- developed, and entirely different in character 
from the primitive system. In most of the Teutonic tongues, 
especially the modern ones, this self-developed system has 
been again so far broken down that it can only be discovered 
by a careful system of induction and inference. In the ancient 
Gothic language, we see the process going forward under our 
eyes, the old inflexions and forms giving place to the new, 
the deficiencies caused by time and accident being replaced 
by a growth from within, which has come at length almost 
entirely to supersede the old throughout the whole Teutonic 
family. According to Professor Bopp, " the Gothic language 
holds, so to speak, the middle place between Sanskrit and 
German." " It is the true starting point and guiding light, 
the real basis of German grammar, the German Sanskrit." 

In order to illustrate more clearly the relation of the Gothic 
language to our own, let us take a single sentence and trace 
it back at intervals of about five hundred years from the 
present time to the middle of the fourth century of our era. 
I will take the first verse of the tenth chapter of St. John's 
Gospel. It stands in our authorised version, thus — 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the 
door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the 
same is a thief and a robber." 

It may be objected that this is really not English of the 
present day, having been written two hundred and fifty years 
since ; but, practically, it is good idiomatic vernacular of the 
present time. With the exception of the exclamation "verily," 
every word is in daily use amongst us, and with the exception 
of one word " entereth," it is all pure Teutonic. Let us now 
go back five hundred years. In Wickliffe's version of the 



12 

New Testament, written during the latter half of the fourteenth 
century, we find it as follows — 

" Treuly, treuly, I seye to you, he that cometh not in by 
the clore into the foolde of scheep, hut steyeth up by another 
weye, he is night theef and day theef." 

In this case very little of the language is obselete. "Night 
thief," and " day thief," though quaint, are very fair equiva- 
lents for the terms used in the Vulgate, "fur," and "latro." 
The only obsolete word is " steyeth," and it is strange how this 
word, which is found in one form or other in every Teutonic 
language, and even in Greek, should have dropped out of use, 
expressing, as it does, one of the simplest and commonest 
ideas, that of motion forward or upwards. Going back another 
five hundred years, we quote from the Anglo-Saxon version, 
which may fairly be dated about the middle of the ninth 
century — 

" Soth ic secge eow, se ne gseth set tham geate in to sceapa 
falde, ac styth elles ofer, he is theof and sceatha." 

Here, the change in five hundred years appears considerable, 
aggravated as it is by the difference of spelling, but the lan- 
guage, in all essentials, is precisely the same. In addition 
to the verb " styth," which is common to this and Wickliffe s 
version, the only obsolete w T ord is "sceatha," robber.* Every 
other word in the sentence is in common use among us at the 
present day. 

Let us now go back another five hundred years, which 
brings us to A.D. 860, beyond which our knowledge of the 
Teutonic tongues, as such, utterly fails. The passage iu the 
Gothic version of Ulphilas stands thus — 

" Amen, amen, qitha izvis, saei inn ni attgaggith thairh 
daur in gardan lambe ak steigith aljathro, sah hliftus ist jah 
vaideddja." 

* This indeed can hardly be said to be obsolete. Our word " scathe," to injure, 
to harm, is the verbal form of the same radical. 



13 

This, at first sight, appears uncouth and unintelligible ; but 
a slight analysis soon removes the difficulty. " Amen" is taken 
from the Greek, untranslated. " Steigith " is common to the 
Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old English. " Ak," but, is 
common to the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon. " Jah," and, exists 
in the Old Saxon and Old High German. The remaining 
words, though changed in form, are radically extant in 
English of the present day. " Qitha," is the first person 
singular, present tense of the verb '* qithan," to say, which is 
preserved in our phrase, " quoth I," " quoth he." "Izvis," is 
radically the same as the Saxon " eow," English " you ;" 
" saei," and "sail," are the relative and personal pronouns 
which correspond to " se " and "he" in Anglo-Saxon, and 
are all derived from the Sanskrit " sa," Zend "ha." At- 
gangeth is sufficiently intelligible, and would be good York- 
shire at the present day. " Thairh daur in gardan lambe " 
scarcely needs explanation ; " through the door into the 
garden of lambs " is a very slight variation from our own 
version. "Aljathro" is an inflection of the word " alis," 
A.S "elles," English "else," combined with "thro." "Hlif'tus," 
thief, still exists in our terms " cattle-lifter," " shop-lifter." 
" Yaideddja," literally woe-doer, sufficiently explains its 
relationship. Every word but one in the sentence thus 
exhibits its identity with the English, through the Anglo- 
Saxon. 

Every language may be looked at in two aspects. We may 
direct our attention to its substance as shewn in its vocabulary, 
or we may study it in its form, as exhibited in its inflexions 
and grammatical system. I propose to take a glance at the 
Gothic language under both aspects ; but the very limited 
space at my disposal renders it necessary to confine myself at 
present to one only, of which I can give but a slight and 
superficial sketch. 

I will commence with the grammatical forms, confining 



u 

myself on the present occasion to the relations of the Teutonic 
to the Sanskrit and Classical tongues. 

The noun first claims our attention. There is a remarkable 
similarity in the original inflexions of the noun throughout the 
Aryan family of languages. In the Teutonic branch, the 
Gothic is the one which exhibits the most complete system of 
case endings. The sister tongues, evidently identical at the 
outset, gradually broke down and lost their inflexions, until, 
in the modern languages, both Teutonic and Romance, the 
case endings have almost entirely disappeared. 

The Gothic has two classes of declensions, called by Grimm 
the strong and the weak ; by others, the vowel and conso- 
nantal, from a theory that the crude forms in each case ended, 
respectively, in a vowel or a consonant. There are four 
declensions in the vowel class, and two in the consonantal 
class. 

I can only give a single specimen to exhibit the close con- 
nexion of the inflexional system of the whole family. 

The Gothic, like the Greek, has five cases, the ablative of 
the Latin being deficient ; but it resembles the latter in want- 
ing the dual number of the nouns. 

The first declension masculine of the vowel or strong class 
is as under : — 



CRUDE FORM—' 


'FISK' 


' A FISI 


Norn. Fisk — s 


Plural fisk — 6s 


Gen. Fisk — is 




fisk — e 


Dat. Fisk— a 




fisk — am 


Ace. Fisk — 




fisk — ans 


Voc. Fisk— 




fisk — 6s 



Let us compare this with the Latin "Pisces." The crude 
form " Pise" is the same in each language, the Gothic F being 
equivalent, according to Grimm's law of phonetic change, to 
the Latin P. : — 



15 



Sing. 


Flu. 


Nom. Pise — es 


Pise— es 


Gen. Pise — is 


Pise — ium 


Vat. Pise — i 


Pise — ibus 


Ace. Pise — em 


Pise — es 


Voc. Pise — es 


Pise — es 


Abl. Pise — e 


Pise — ibus 



Let us now compare the declension of the same crude form 
in Greek : * 



CRUDE FORM 'IX0Y or 


Fixer. 


Sing. 


Dual. 


Flu. 


Nom. FlxOv — e 


FiyQv — e 


FtxQv — eg 


Gen. FiyQv — og 


Fl%6v — 01 v 


FixQv — (op 


Vat. Fi X dv—~i 


FiyQv — olv 


FlxOv — <ri{y) 


Ace. Fi-^dv — v 


Fi%dv — e 


FixOv — g 


Voc. FiyQv — 


Fixdv — e 


FtxOv — eg 



We find here such a strong resemblance, that, if not amount- 
ing to entire identity, it at least points to a common origin. 
It is here that the study of Sanskrit comes in to unite these 
scattered elements, and to throw light on the original unity 
from which these languages have all diverged. I cannot 
go into the question of the antiquity of the Sanskrit language, 
or the indications of its close connexion with the original 
Aryan tongue. I would merely observe that one mark of 
high antiquity is the absence of governing particles. The 
relations of words are almost entirely marked by inflexions. 
The nouns have eight cases ; in addition to those common to 
other languages and the Latin ablative, there are the instru- 
mental and locative, indicating the use of the subject and its 
place. For instance, if I say, " The man cooks the food with 

* Although the i in ix^vg has the smooth breathing, all analogy leads to the 
inference that it was originally preceded by the digamma or F. The dental 
aspirate 9, which answers to the s in the other languages comes after the guttural 
instead of before it. This transposition is common in the Greek language, as 
(7K€7rro-/ttai, Latin specto. 



1(5 

(by means of) the fire," the Sanskrit expresses it, «}{ ^ 
ZftfzfZf ^PfTfT T^ " Annam agnina pacliati narah;" 
agnina being in the instrumental case. If I say, " The 
man cooks the food at the fire," it will be ^f^™ "WWV 
"WWfH" ^TX! " Annam agnaa pachati narah;" agnau being 
in the locative case.* 

There is considerable uncertainty about the Sanskrit equi* 
valent for the crude form Fisk or Pise, which we have traced 
through the Teutonic and classical branches. Pis or Pes 
in Sanskrit signifies rapid motion — a root which is found 
in the Anglo-Saxon, Fys-an ; Norse, Fijs-a; to hasten, to 
move quickly. Pictet (Origines Indo-Europ. sec. 47) main- 
tains that the correspondence of the Latin Pise with the 
Cambrian Pysg, proves the existence of a primitive crude form 
Pisk.\ Assuming this to be the case, it would belong to the 
eighth class of Sanskrit nouns, and would be thus declined : — 





Sing. 


Dual. 


Plu. 


Norn. 


Pisk— (s) 


Pisk — au 


Pisk — as 


Gen. 


P.sk — as 


Pisk — os 


Pisk — am 


Dat. 


Pisk— e 


Pisg — bhyam 


Pisg — bhyas 


Ace. 


Pisk — am 


Pisk — au 


Pisk — as 


Voc, 


Pisk— 


Pisk — au 


Pisk — as 


AU. 


Pisk — as 


Pisg — bhyam 


Pisg — bhyas 


Inst. 


Pisk— a 


Pisg — bhyam 


Pisg — bhis 


Loc. 


Pisk— i 


Pisk — os 


Pisk— su 



It will be seen that the Sanskrit noun contains the whole of 

* It may be observed in passing, that out of these four Sanskrit words three 
are quite familiar in other connexions. '<HHd*| " Agnis"is the Latin " Ignis." fire. 
" I Tfr "Pach," the root of "pachati," is identical with our word "bake;" the 
palatal " ch " of the Sanskrit being the equivalent of the Teutonic guttural " k." 
When we talk of a "batch" of bread we are literally speaking pure Sanskrit. 
Tj"3£ <•' Nara" is from the same root as the Greek a-vt)p man. 

+ Another Sanskrit term for fish is jhash-a, which seems to connect itself with 
the Gaelic and Irish iasg. It might seem a hopeless case to connect these with 

fish: but the change of the Sanskrit palatals ch, j, and jh, into the labial /in 
other languages is not uncommon; e.g., Sanskrit, chatur, Gothic, fidvor, English, 

Jour; Sanskrit, chaur-a (a thief), Latin, fur, Greek, <fnnp. 



1? 

the inflexions both of the classical and Teutonic declensions. 
The singular cases in the whole are so near as to speak for 
their own identity ; but in the plural there are a few discre- 
pancies which require .explanation. It will be seen that the 
Sanskrit dative and ablative Pisg-bhyas are reproduced in the 
Latin Pisc-ibus, whilst the dative of the Greek answers more 
closely to the Sanskrit locative. The genitive of the Sans- 
krit, the Latin and Greek uniformly end in m. In the 
Teutonic languages it is the dative which so ends. This 
confusion is not difficult to account for. The case endings, 
though numerous, could not express all the nicer shades in 
the relations of ideas, and came in time to be used with con- 
siderable latitude of meaning, as is in fact the case in the 
Sanskrit writings,- and in the application of the inflexions in 
Greek and Latin. Prepositions are very rarely used in 
Sanskrit in the government of nouns. In the derivative 
languages, as the use of the cases became confused, prepo- 
sitions were more and more necessary to give precision of 
meaning, and thus, the case endings, in process of time, 
disappeared, being superseded by the modern system. This 
abrasion and wearing down can be traced very clearly in the 
Teutonic tongues. The inflexional system of nouns appears 
in the Gothic on a par with that of the Greek and Latin. In 
the Old High German, the Old Saxon, the Old Norse, the 
inflexions have undergone little change, and are identical, 
with the exception of dialectic variations, throughout the 
whole family. In the Anglo-Saxon, and Old Frisian, they 
begin to appear worn down, and so through the Middle High 
German and Semi- Saxon, the process is seen going forward 
until it has reached its consummation in the modern languages, 
which scarcely retain the shadow of their original case endings. 
The same process has proceeded in the languages derived from 
the Latin to even a greater extent, and can only be accounted 
for by the confusion into which the case endings fell, and the 



18 

greater definiteness which is attained by the use of prepo- 
sitions. 

All that it is possible to do in a paper like this is to present 
a brief illustration on each branch of the subject. I must, 
therefore, entirely pass over the other Gothic declensions, and 
their relations to the kindred tongues, and make a brief allusion 
to the pronouns. 

These present strong resemblances throughout the whole 
Aryan family. The "ah-am" and " tw-am" of the Sanskrit, the 
ey-w and ffv of the Greek, the eg-o and tu of the Latin, the ik 
and thu of the Gothic, approximate very closely. To show 
the connexion between the Gothic and Latin, I will give 
the iniiexions of the pronoun of the third person in both 
languages : — 

GOTHIC. 







Singular. 






Masc. 


Fern. 


Neut. 


Nom 


is 


si 


it-a 


Gen. 


is 


iz-os (ir-os) 


is 


Dat. 


im-ma 


iz-ai (ir-ai) 


im-ma 


Ace. 


in-a 


i-ja 


it-a 



To this, our parent language, the Anglo-Saxon, corresponds, 
introducing the aspirate in the form of an initial H : — 

Singular. 



Masc. 


Fern. 




Neut. 


Nom. He 


Heo or Seo 


Hit 


Gen. His 


Hir-e 




His 


Dat. Him 


Hir-e 




Him 


Ace. Hin-e 


Hi 




Hit 


ow compare tb< 


3 Latin form 
Singular. 


— 




Masc. 


Fern. 


Neut. 


Nom. Is 


Ea 


Id 




Gen. Ejus 


Ejus 


Ejus 


Dat. Ei 


Ei 


Ei 




Ace. Eum 


Earn 


Id 




Abl. Eo 


Ea 


Eo 





19 



Although the Latin does not present the identity which 
exists hetween the other two, yet the resemhlance is far too 
great to be fortuitous, and points to a congenital origin. 

To shew the connexion between the Gothic and the Sanskrit, 
I will compare the Gothic demonstrative pronoun or article 
with the Sanskrit pronoun of the third person : — 

GOTHIC. 
Singular. 



Mas. 


Fern. 






Neut. 


Nom. sa 


so 






that-a 


Gen. this 


tbiz-os (thir- 


-os) 




this 


Dot. tham-ma 


thiz-ai (thir- 


ai) 




tham-ma 


Ace. than-a 


tho 






tbat-a 


SANSKRIT. 










Singular. 








Masc. 


Fern. 




Neut. 


Nom. sa-s 


sa 




tat 




Gen. tas-ya 


tas-yas 




tas- 


-ya 


Dat. tasm-ai 


tas-yai 




tasm-ai 


Ace. tarn 


tarn 




tat 




Abl. tasm-at 


tas-yas 




tasm-at 


Ins. ten-a 


ta-ja 




ten- 


-a 


Loc. tasm-in 


tas-yam 




tasm-in 



If space had allowed, it would be interesting to show the 
relation of the other pronominal forms in Gothic, with the 
Teutonic on the one hand, and the Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek 
on the other. I must now pass on the adjective. 

Hitherto, we have seen the Teutonic and the classical lin- 
guistic forms running side by side and proceeding on the 
same principles. The adjective gives the first indication of 
the separation of the Teutonic, and the development of new 
and self- derived forms. In the Sanskrit and classical lan- 
guages, the adjectives are declined in each gender according 
to the paradigm of the substantives. 

The Gothic has two separate forms of declension, according 



20 



to either of which any 


adjective may be declined. These 


are described by grammarians in various terms— the strong 


and weak, the definite and indefinite, 


the vowel and conso- 


nantal. The 


distinction 


runs throug 


h the whole Teutonic 


family, both in the Norse 


and Deutsch divisions ; * but appears 


most prominent and complete in the 


Gothic. The weak or 


definite form : 


is identical ^ 


svith the weak 


or consonantal declen- 


sion of substantives : — 








(jOTHIC. 


English. 




God. 


Good. 
Singular. 


Nom. 

Gen. 

Dat. 

Ace. 

Voc. 


Mas. 

god-a 

god-ins 

god-in 

god-an 

god-a 


Fern. 

god-o 

god-ons 

godson 

god-on 

god-o 

Plural. 


Neut. 
god-o 
god-ins 
god-in 
god-o 
god-o 


Nom. 
Gen. 
Dat. 
Ace. 


Mas. 
god-ans 
god-ane 
god-am 
god-ans 


Fern. 
god-ons 
god-ono 
god-om 
god-ons 


Neut. 
god-ona 
god-ane 
god-am 
god-ona 


The strong 


or indefinite form has its inflexions quite distinct 


from those of the strong 


form of substantives. They are as 


under : — 




Singular. 




Nom. 
Gen. 
Dat. 
Ace. 


Mas. 
god-s 
god-is 
god-amma 
god-ana 


Fern. 
god-a 
god-aizos 
god-ai 
god-a 

Plural. 


Neut. 
god-god-ata 
god-is 
god-amma 
god-god-ata 


Nom. 
Gen, 
Dat. 
Ace. 


Mas. 
god-ai 
god-aize 
god-aim 
god-ans 


Fern. 
god-os 
god-aizo 
god-aim 
gocUqs 


Neut. 

god-a 

god-aize 

god-aim 

god-^a. 



• By the- Norse, I mean the Icelandic or Old Norse-, the Swedish and Danish. 
By the Deutsch, the High and Low German, Saxon, and the derivative tongues. 



II 

In modern English, the whole, and in Swedish and Danish 
nearly the whole, of these inflexions have heen lost. In 
modern German, the definite and indefinite forms still exist, 
and will he found to correspond very closely with the old 
Gothic. The mode in which the different forms were employed 
is illustrated in the following passage — John, x. 11, "I am 
the good Shepherd, the good Shepherd giveth his life for the 
sheep." Gothic — -" Ik im hairdeis gods," i.e., a good shep- 
herd, expressing the quality generally ; " hairdeis sa goda," 
i.e., this particular good shepherd ; " saivala seina laggith faur 
lamba." The origin of the double inflexions may be thus 
accounted for. The original Aryan tongue had no article, but 
was so copious and flexible as not to need any. As the lan- 
guage lost its power, the want was felt of some expressions 
more definite than the mere substantive inflexions. This was 
obtained by attaching the pronoun of the third person to 
the crude form of the adjective. Thus, " godamma" is com- 
posed of " god," the crude form, and " imma," " to him," the 
" i " being changed to " a " by the rule called Guna in Sanskrit, 
under which " a " is considered the " urvokal " or original 
vowel, from which the others have been derived, and to which 
they have a tendency in new combinations to return. 

When greater precision was required, the demonstrative 
pronoun " sa " was employed with the substantive or weak 
declension. As this grew up into an article, the other declen- 
sion which had originally expressed definite ideas, drifted into 
the indefinite meaning, as it now exists in modern German. 

It is scarcely conceivable that this process should have taken 
place in exactly the same manner in several distinct and sepa- 
rate languages. Nothing could prove more clearly the essen- 
tial identity of the Teutonic family, and its separate existence 
as a class, than the testimony of this and other similar develop- 
ments shortly to be alluded to. 

I have next to say a few words on the article. The history of 



23 

the article in the Aryan family of languages is curious and inter- 
esting. The Sanskrit has no article. The Greek seldom used 
the article until after the time of Homer, 6, rj, to, being em- 
ployed in the Homeric poems, chiefly as a demonstrative, or 
as a substantive pronoun. It came at length to be used 
in the same general sense as the English " the," and even to 
be attached to proper names * The Latin language never 
possessed an article. The demonstratives hie, ute, Me, never 
became applicable to nouns as a class, or as a matter of course. 
Their use always implies emphatic demonstration. " In his 
undis maluit jactari, quarn in ilia tranquillitate vivere." — Cic. 
" He preferred to be tossed about in these waters than to live 
in that tranquillity." In the Eomance languages, derived 
from the Latin, the breaking up of the Latin construction led 
to the adoption of the demonstrative "ille," as the so-called 
definite article, the Italians and Spaniards adopting the first 
syllable, and the French the last. 

We have seen that in the case of the adjective, the same 
development extends through all the branches of the Teutonic 
family, giving evidence of its adoption by the mother tongue 
before its separation into dialects. This is not the case with 
the article, which is of much later adoption, each language 
having assumed its own particular form. The Gothic, in 
this respect, bears a striking analogy to the Latin. Under 
ordinary circumstances the simple noun is employed, the 
demonstrative pronoun being added when necessary for the 
sake of special reference. Thus in the simple sentence — 
" The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof," where 
our language employs articles to three words without any 
need of special definition, the Gothic dispenses with the 
article — " fraujons ist airtha jah fullo izos," answering verbatim, 

* The use of 6, ?}, to, as the article, is later than its use as the pronoun, and 
sprang from it, as rbv apiarov strictly him the bravest, came to mean simply 
the bravest ; thus the article defines and strengthens a word. — Liddell and Scott, 
sub. voc, 



to the Latin " Domini est terra et plenitudo ejus," whilst the 
Greek answers with the same exactness to the English 
(omitting the verb), " tov Kvplov rj yrj kcu to -TrXijpojfxa avrr)g." 

The Gfothic employs the demonstrative pronoun as a definite 
article to identify a subject or word which has been previously 
referred to — thus, Mat. xxvii. 11, "And Jesus stood before 
the governor, and the governor asked him saying ;" " ith 
Jesus stoth faura kindina, jah frah ina sa kindins, qithands ;" 
the first mention of the subject is without the article, the 
second introduces it. The same rule applies where attention 
is called to the same idea under a different word, Mat. ix. 18, 
" My daughter is even now dead ;" " dauhtar meina nu 
gasvalt;'" in verse 25, maid is used instead of daughter, " and 
the maid arose," " urrais so mavi," with the article. 

The Sanskrit makes a similar use of the demonstrative 
pronoun, as in the following passage from the Hitopadesa — 
" There was a sage named Mahatapas," <j| \^\ ^"fTfffi^g" 
- e-3'jf «jf=5f "^T^"C " ast i Mahatapa nama munih," without the 
article — " By the sage a mouse was reared," pfTf *$fi\ |" 
•^ jqef,; HcTfiaHT " tena nmnina mushikah sanvarddhitah," 
with the article. 

In the High German dialect, the demonstrative pronoun, 
" der, die, das," answering to the Sanskrit and Gothic " sa," 
became gradually adopted as an article. 

The Anglo-Saxon, in the earliest form in which it has come 
down to us, was devoid of the article, as the following extract 
from Caedmon will show : — 

He aerest gescop He first created 

Eorthan bearaum The earth for the children (of men) 

Heofon to rofe The heaven for roof 

Halig scyppend ! Holy Creator ! 

Tha middan geard The middle space 

Money nnes weard The guardian of mankind 

Ece drihtne The eternal Lord 

iEfter teode Afterwards made 

Forium foldan For men the ground. 



In this passage, whilst the English idiom requires the Use 
of the article seven times, and, with one exception, in a general 
and somewhat indeterminate sense, the corresponding Saxon 
only employs the pronoun once, and that demonstratively to 
call special attention to the earth as man's habitation. 

In the Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels the use of the 
article is somewhat further advanced ; but under ordinary 
circumstances it is still omitted — thus, in Mat. xi. 5, " The 
blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed and the deaf hear." Anglo-Saxon, " Blinde geseoth, 
healte gath, hreofe synd gecloensode, deafe gehyrath."* 

By the twelfth century, the article, originally the demon- 
strative pronoun, had assumed to a great extent the position 
which it now occupies, as in the following passage from the 
Ormulum :■ — 

" Uppo the thridde day bilammp f 
Swa sum the goddspell cytheth \ 
That i the land o Gallilee 
Was an bridall yarkedd 
And it was yarkedd in an tun 
That was Cana gehaten," &c. 

The peculiarity of the Norse tongues in placing the definite 
article after the noun seems to indicate a self- development 
arising probably from the same cause which led in the Gothic 
to the junction of the personal pronoun with the adjective, as 
described above. In Icelandic, or Old Norse, a ship is " eitt 
skip," the ship, " skip-it ;" the demonstrative emphasis appears 
stronger in this form than the one adopted by the Deutsch 
members of the Teutonic family. 

I must altogether omit any reference to the numerals, and 
to the degrees of comparison, in each of which there is a 
striking parallelism throughout the entire Aryan family. It 

* In Wickliffe's New Testament the same principle is still preserved, the pas- 
sage being rendered thus, — "Blinde men seen, crokide men wandren, mesel9 
bene made clene, deefe men heren." 

t It happened. J Saith. 



25 

only now remains to make a few remarks on the Gothic verb, 
the study of which throws a flood of light on the history and 
progress of the languages of Europe. 

When we compare the English verb in its absence of 
inflexions, and in its complicated apparatus of auxiliaries, with 
the wonderful flexibility and self-contained power of the 
Greek, or even with the much more circumscribed range of 
the Latin verb, it is difficult to believe that they are at all 
related, or can possibly have sprung from the same parent 
stock ; yet it is a fact capable of the most satisfactory proof 
that such must have been the case. If we trace back the 
Teutonic verb to its earliest specimens, we find a constantly 
increasing resemblance to the classical forms, until, at length, 
in the Gothic language, we discover the point of departure 
where the two streams, heretofore parallel, have finally diverged. 
The language at this stage presents the appearance of having 
been worn down and abraded, so to speak ; and to have lost 
much of its expressive power. In starting afresh in the career 
of civilisation to regain what was lost, it seems to have opened 
out a new course developed from within, supplying itself with 
fresh forms as they were required. These forms continue to 
the present day in common use in our own and every other 
branch of the Teutonic family. 

The inflexions of the Gothic verbs are simple, and the 
inflected tenses few, consisting only of the present and past 
in the indicative and conjunctive moods. 

If we compare the present tense of the Gothic with that of 
the Latin, we shall find a very striking similarity, if not abso- 
lute identity, the Gothic possessing a dual number which is 
wanting in the Latin : — 

Gothic, Haba. Latin, Habeo. English, To have*. 

Gothic. Latin. 

Sing. 1 haba habeo 

2 habais habe.s 

3 habaith habet 



26 



Dual. 


1 habos 

2 habats 




Plu. 


1 habam 


habem-us 




2 habaith 


habet-is 




3 haband 


habent 






The inflexions of the present conjunctive indicate a similar 
connexion. 

If now we examine the past tense, we find in the Gothic 
alone, of all the Teutonic family, the remains of a past tense 
formed by reduplication, as " greta," I weep ; " gaigrot," I 
wept; "falda," I fold; " faifold," I folded. The Sanskrit 
second preterite and the Greek perfect tenses are formed 
in like manner. Sanskrit, " bodhami," I know; "bubodha/' 
I knew ; '' tanomi," I stretch ; " tatani," I stretched. Greek, 
'* Xvw," I loosen ; " XeXum," I loosed ; " rvirno^ I strike ; 
" rcVu^a," I struck. The Latin has the remains of a similar 
formation in such verbs as " mordeo," I bite ; " momordi," 
I bit; "tego," I cover; " tetigi," I covered. This, in fact, 
seems to have been the original formation of the past tense in 
the Aryan tongue. 

The number of reduplicated preterites in Gothic is small. 
The generality of verbs expressing simple ideas form their 
preterites by a change of the radical vowel, as " rinna," I run ; 
"rann," I ran; "liga," I lie ; " lag," I lay. This is identical 
with what is called the strong form of conjugation in the 
whole of the Teutonic languages. In Latin also this change, 
or a consonantal one, forms a large part of the perfect tenses, 
as " moneo, monui," " rego, rexi." The strong form in the 
Teutonic tongues belongs to the verbs expressing the simplest 
ideas, and in the Gothic, they are principally intransitive. 
As expression became required for more extended ideas, 
secondary verbs were formed of a derivative character. The 
manner in which this was done is curious and instructive, and 
has exercised a very important influence on our own language 
to the present day. The secondary verbs were formed from 



27 

substantives or adjectives by adding the termination "jan," 
and from the strong verbs by adding the same termination to 
the preterite — thus, from " stain/' stone, was formed "stainjan," 
to stone ; from "varm," warm, " varmjan," to warm; from 
"ligan," to lie; " lagjan," to lay ; from "reisan," to rise; 
"raisjan," to raise. The connexion between such English 
verbs as " to sit," and " to set," " to rise," and " to raise," 
" fcrlie," and " to lay," is here satisfactorily explained, and 
nowhere else. The secondary verbs thus formed were inca- 
pable of a preterite arising from vowel change. The difficulty 
was met by superadding as an auxiliary the past tense of the 
strong verb " didan," to do : — 

Sing, dad Dual dedu Flu. dedum 

dadst deduts deduth 

dad dedun * 

"Lagi-dad, thus expressed — "lay I did," or "lay-did," 
contracted in .English to "laid." In High German, the "d" 
is exchanged for " t," thus, "legetat" becomes contracted to 
" leget," or " legt." This mode of forming the preterites of 
the weak verbs prevails through the whole of the Teutonic 
tongues, both Norse and Deutsch, giving a strong indication 
that the Gothic lies very near the common original of these* 
various dialects. We have preserved in English more fully 
than in any other language this form of the preterite. When 
we say "I loved," or "did love," the expressions are identical, 
the first being merely a contraction of " I love-did." t 

A few words on the future tense, and I have done. 

The modern languages of Europe were all in their early 
stages destitute of any tense expressing simple future time 
apart from the idea of obligation or volition. This want was 

* The preterite in the derivative verbs is thus formed : — 

Sing. 1 lagi — da(d) Dual 1 lagi — dedu Plu. 1 lagi — dedum 

2 lagi — des (dadst) 2 lagi — deduts 2 lagi — deduth 

3 lagi — da(d) 3 lagi— dedun 

t See Gahelentz, " Grammatik der Gothischen Sprache," pp. 28-96." Grimm, 
" Deutsche Grammatik," 1-1040. Max Muller, Lectures p. 89. 



28 

not supplied until after the separation of the parent Teutonic 
stock into dialects and languages. Each, therefore, formed 
its future tense in its own way. Want of space prevents me 
here entering upon the subject. . Sir Edmund Head has 
written a very amusing and instructive essay on the future 
auxiliary verbs, to which I would refer my readers.* The 
Gothic expresses the future sometimes by the present tense, 
sometimes by a circumlocution, sometimes by an auxiliary. 

It is commonly thought that only the modern Euro- 
pean languages exhibit this defect in their early stages ; but 
deeper research seems to show that the same difficulty has 
always existed, and that the idea of the simple unconditional 
future is by no means readily apprehended by the human 
mind. To say nothing of the Hebrew, in which difficulties 
exist in the future tense which I am quite incompetent to 
deal with, I will refer in very few words to the Sanskrit and 
Latin. 

The Sanskrit first future is formed by a combination of the 
noun of agency with the substantive verb. Thus, from "raj," 
to govern, is formed the first future " rajayitasmi," which 
literally means "I am a governor," though used to express " I 
shall govern." So in the Latin, " reg-am," I shall rule, is a 
similar expression abbreviated. Both give the root " raj " or 
" reg," with the substantive verb " as," or " asm-i," equivalent 
to the Saxon " eom," or the English " am." " Reg-am," then, 
signifies " I am a ruler," or " I am to rule." It may be 
objected to this that the Latin future is only thus formed in 
two conjugations, and that " Amabo " and " Monebo " cannot 
be thus accounted for. Singularly enough in this case the 
exception proves the rule. There are in Sanskrit two substan- 
tive verbs, " as" or " asm-i," answering to our " am;" and 
" bhu," equivalent to the Saxon " beo," and the English " be." 

t " Shall and Will, or Two Chapters on Future Auxiliary Verbs." London : 
Murray, 1856. 



29 

With the latter of these the future of the two first Latin con- 
jugations is formed ; " audi-am " is literally "I am to hear ; " 
"mone-bo," "I be to admonish." The difficulties in express- 
ing the future are thus found not to be new, but to have 
existed from the earliest times. 

The Gothic is the only Teutonic language which has 
preserved the dual number. In the kindred tongues some 
faint traces are found of the dual number in the pronouns ; 
but in the verbs it has been utterly lost. The Gothic dual 
of the verbal conjugations, though not so complete as in the 
Sanskrit, is nearly as much so as in the Greek. Its use is 
somewhat peculiar. In narrative the plural is employed even 
when two only are spoken of ; but in discourse and conver- 
sation the dual is always used. This peculiarity will be seen 
in the following passage — Mark 11, v. 2 : — 

" Jesus insandida tvans siponje, jah qath du im (pi.) 
" Jesus sent two disciples, and said to them, 

gaggats (du.) in haim, jah bigitats (du.) fulan ; 
go into the village, and ye-shall-find a foal ; 

andbindandans (du.) ina attiuhits, (du.) jah jabai was 

unloosing him, bring, and if any one 

iggqis (du.) qithai duwe thata taujats (du.) qithaits (du.) 
to you saith why that do ye ? say 

thatei frauja this gairneith. Galithun (pi.) than jah 
that the-Lord this needeth. They-went then and 

bigetun (pi.) fulan. 
found the foal. 

The Gothic is also the only Teutonic language which pos- 
sesses a true passive voice. Its forms are few and simple, 
extending only to the present tense of the indicative and con- 
junctive moods. It is, nevertheless, much used even in cases 
where the Greek is expressed actively, e.g., Luke c. 6, v. 38 
— " Good measure shall they give unto you." Greek — 
" fxerpov KaXov Zuffovcn" Gothic- — " mitads goda gibada," — 
" good measure is (shall be) given." 



30 
The passive voice is conjugated as under : — 

FIRST CONJUGATION. 

Haitan. Ger. Heissen. Anglo Sax. Hatan. 

Old Eny. Hight, to be called. 

INDICATIVE. CONJUNCTIVE. 

PEESENT TENSE. 

Singular. 

1 haitada haitaidau 

2 haitaza haitaizau 

3 haitada haitaidau 

Dual wanting. 

Plural. 

1 haitanda haitaindau 

2 haitanda haitaindau 

3 haitanda haitaindau 






The reflective form is also used to a considerable extent in 
the expression both of passive and intransitive verbs in the 
Greek, thus, " to be hidden," " gafilhan sik ;" " to appear," 
" ataugjan sik ;" " to be separated," " afskaidan sik ;" " to 
repent," " idreigon sik." 

The above slight and rapid sketch may give a general view 
of the grammatical forms of the Gothic language, and of the 
relations in which they stand both to what may he called the 
affiliated tongues of the Teutonic stock on the one hand, and 
to the Sanskrit and classical languages on the other. 

In the next lecture I propose to treat on the substance or 
vocabulary of the language. 



PART II 



In the former part of this paper, I endeavoured to shew 
that the Gothic language is intimately connected with our 
own mother tongue ; that it is very near the point of conver- 
gence of all the Teutonic dialects ; that it gives the key to 
many of the peculiarities which distinguish this sub -family of 
tongues ; that by its copious system of inflexions it indicates 
its common origin and affinity with the Sanskrit, Greek, and 
Latin. I propose in the second part to continue the inquiry 
by reference to the vocabulary, as still more closely identifying 
the language with our own; and by an occasional glimpse 
into the common radical connexion of all the branches of the 
great Aryan family. In doing so, I cannot but feel that I 
.have to contend with two difficulties of a kind quite opposed 
to each other. A superficial glance at a page of English and 
Gothic placed side by side would excite a sceptical smile at 
the idea of any connexion existing between the two. On the 
contrary when the analysis has been carried out, and both are 
reduced to their simple elements, the connexion appears so 
obvious as to need no argument in proof. The subject is one 
of deep interest, as illustrating what written history fails to 
disclose. In the eloquent words of Max Muller — " Few men 
perhaps will be insensible to the pleasure we derive from being- 
able to watch in the course of our studies the gradual growth 
of any form of human speech. The history of words is the 
reflexion of the history of the human mind, and many expres- 



32 

sions which we use in a merely conventional sense are full of 
historical recollections if we can but trace them back to their 
original form and meaning."* 

This is perfectly true, but it may be added that the study 
of words carries us back beyond the dawn of history, and 
throws a light upon the manners, habits, modes of thought 
and of life in remote ages, which have left no historical memo- 
rials behind. 

It may be fairly stated that whatever terms we find in 
a language, native, not derived, represent ideas and things 
existing and familiar among the people who spoke the language. 
Acting on this principle, let us test the Gothic language, and 
ascertain as far as we may, both the relation in which it stands 
to ourselves, and the light it throws on the condition of our 
forefathers fifteen hundred years ago. 

It matters little where we begin. As a familiar subject of 
comparison, let us take the Lord's Prayer. I give it in Gothic, 
Anglo-Saxon, and modern German. With the modern Eng- 
lish we are all familiar. That our own vernacular tongue is 
the lineal descendant, the living representative of that spoken 
by the Angles and Saxons admits of no doubt ; but the term 
Anglo-Saxon seems almost to ignore this, and to convert the 
speech of our forefathers, the old, " Englisca sprseca," as they 
termed it, into a foreign language. Whatever connexion, 
therefore, we establish between the Anglo-Saxon and any 
other tongue, must equally apply to modern English in its 
radical and inalienable features, however the lapse of time may 
have modified its external forms. 

GOTHIC. 

Atta unsar thu in himinam ; veihnai namo thein. 

Qimai thiudinassus theins. 

Vairthai vilja theins sve in himina jah ana airthai. 

* " Survey of Language," p. 16. 



33 



Hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan gif uns liimnia daga. 

Jah aflet uns thatei skulans sijaima svasve jah veis afletam 
thaim skulam unsaraim. 

Jah ni bringais uns in fraistubnjai ; ak lausei uns af 
thamma ubilin. 

Unte theina ist thiudangardi, jah mahts, jah vulthus, in 
aivins. Amen. 

ANGLO-SAXON. 

Feeder ure, thu the eart on heofenum, si thin name 
gehalgod. 

To-becume thin rice. 

Ge-weorthe thin willa on eorthan, swa-swa on heofenum. 

Urne dseghwamlicani hlaf syle us to-da3g. 

And forgyf us tire gyltas, swa-swa we forgyfath urum 
gyltendum. 

And ne gelsede thu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfle. 

MODERN GERMAN. 

Unser Vater in dem Hiramel, dein Name werde geheiliget. 

Dein Reich komme; Dein Wille geschehe auf Erden, wie 
im Himmel. 

Unser taglich Brodt, gib uns heute. 

Und vergieb uns unsere Schulden wie Wir unsern Schul- 
digern vergeben. 

Und fuhre uns nicht in Versuchung, sondern erlose uns von 
dem Uebel. 

Denn dein ist das Reich, und die Kraft, und die Herr- 
lichkeit, in Ewigkeit. Amen. 

Omitting the doxology at the close, which the Anglo- 
Saxon version, being translated from the Vulgate, does not 
contain, the Gothic contains 53 words, the Anglo-Saxon 50, 
the German 48. Of the 53 Gothic words, 18 are repetitions 
or inflexions, leaving 35 distinct forms. Of these, 31 are 



34 

common to all the three languages, a few of the German ones 
being only found in the old dialect ; one is common to the 
Gothic and German only, one to the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon 
only, two are somewhat doubtful, leaving none exclusively 
belonging to the Gothic. Of the fifty Anglo-Saxon words, 
nineteen are repetitions or inflexions, leaving thirty-one dis- 
tinct forms. Of these, twenty-eight are common to the three 
languages, one is common to the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, 
one to the Anglo-Saxon and German, and one doubtful 
(heofenum). Of the forty-eight German words, sixteen are 
repetitions and inflexions, leaving thirty-two distinct forms. 
Of these, twenty-nine are common to the three languages ; 
one is common to the German and the Anglo-Saxon ; one is 
common to the German and Gothic, and one is doubtful 
(himmel). Of course, the resemblance of the common words 
is of a radical character. Although in many cases it is suffi- 
ciently obvious at first sight, in others it requires a somewhat 
close analysis to demonstrate the connexion. Let us take a 
few words at random in illustration. 

The word " kingdom," occurs twice in the Lord's Prayer. 
The Anglo-Saxon and German terms are the same ; German, 
"Beich;" Anglo-Saxon, " Bice." The Gothic has two terms, 
(i Thiudinassus," and " Thiudangardi." These are compound 
words, the separate terms of which are common to the sister- 
tongues. "Thiuda" signifies the nation or people; Anglo- 
Saxon, " theod ;" Old German, " Deut," or " Diot." * " Gut- 
thiuda," was the name by which the Gothic people called 
themselves. The radical " thiu " branches out into a large 
number of derivatives in the various Teutonic tongues. 
Originally, it seems to have conveyed the idea of property 

* From this Old German word " Diot," is derived the modern word " Diet," as 
applied to a conference representing separate states or provinces, as " the Diet of 
Worms," &c. From the form " Diut" is derived the German national appellation, 
"Deutsch," anciently "Diutiska," signifying the race or people par excellence. 
See Pictet, Orig, Indo-Europ., p. 84. 



35 

lying at the root of social union. " Thiuda," Anglo-Saxon, 
" theod," is the common-weal, the collective institutions of the 
state. The Gothic " thiuth," like the English " good," is 
used to signify "both moral qualities and temporal blessings. 
Luke 1, v. 53 — " He hath filled the poor with good things ; " 
" gredagans gasothida thiuthe." " Guth sa thiutheiga," the 
blessed God. 

As property among the wandering Teutonic tribes consisted 
to a great extent of slaves and captives, the word naturally 
came to express this idea. The Anglo-Saxon "theow" is 
used in this sense for a bond servant. Our modern word 
"thew" has a double descent from the Anglo-Saxon, and is 
used in two senses. As derived from " theow," it signifies 
brawn and muscle, as in " Hamlet " — 

" Nature crescent does not grow alone 
In thews and bulk." 

As derived from " theaw/' a word from the same root, it 
implies manners, morals, behaviour, as in Spenser — 

" For well ye worthy been for worth and gentle thewes." 

It will be seen that the same primary idea of gifts, attain- 
ments, presents itself in each. The second part of the word, 
"nassus," is identical with our termination, "ness," in such 
words as "idleness/' "business," &c. In our old word, 
" heathenesse," it is used in exactly the same way to convey 
the concrete meaning, as in the Gothic " thiudinassus." The 
second term for kingdom, " thiudangardi," is literally the 
" guardianship of the common-wealth." 

The other term for king and kingdom, "reik-s" (Latin 
"rex") though not found in the Lord's Prayer, is very exten- 
sively employed in the Gothic. It was used as a common 
suffix to the names of the rulers, as "Ala-ric," king of all. 
"Theodoric," properly " Thiuda-ric/' king of the nation; 



36 

" Herman-ric," warrior king ; " Frithu-ric," or " Frederic/' 
king of peace; " Eode-rio," eloquent king; " Athana-ric,'' 
chosen king ; " Eicimer," or "Emmeric," king for ever.* 

I propose, in the short space which I can claim for the 
present paper, without any very definite plan, to inquire into 
what ideas we have in common with our ancient kinsmen of 
the fourth century, and what insight we can derive, from 
the language as it then existed, into their habits and condition. 

Whatever the Gothic tribes might have been in their original 
condition, in the fourth century, they were certainly an agri- 
cultural people. Most of our agricultural terms now in use 
were then employed in the same sense as now. " Land " and 
"ground" are words common to all the Teutonic tongues. 

"Akr" (Eng. "acre/') signifies a cultivated field; origi- 
nally it meant a piece of land enclosed by a mound. Latin, 
" agger." 

Compare Greek aypog. 

„ Latin ager. 

,, Anglo-Sax. secer. 

„ German acker. 



„ Swedish aker. 

From this comes " akran," fruit. The English " acorn " 
has usually been derived from oak-corn, but this etymology 
is extremely doubtful. The German " ecker," the old Norse 
" akurin," are evidently the same word, but have no connexion 
with " corn ; " the Norse term, like the Gothic, signifies fruit- 
in general, 



* This last appellation lias had a singular fortune. :i Emmerich'' became a 
favorite German name. Transferred to France, it took the form of "Alrueric," 
shortened to "Ayrner." It was Latinised into " Emerieos," and carried over the 
Alps into Lornbardy, was softened into "Amerigo," the baptismal name of 
Vespucci," who claimed the discovery of the continent of America, and conferred 
his name upon it. Amongst the various somces of self-glorification of the bearers 
of the " Star-spangled Banner," it is rather remarkable that no orator should 
have alluded to the proud prognostication of greatness conveyed in the name 
itself — " monarch for ever." 



87 

To plough was expressed by fC arjan." 
Anglo-Saxon, erian. 
Old German, aran. 
Greek, apovv. 

Latin, arare, aratrum, arvum. 

The history of this word is curious and interesting — 
pointing backwards to the earliest origin of Indo-European 
civilisation. 

The Sanskrit root, ^\ ar, has the primitive idea of motion 

forward, and in the causative form that of pushing or causing 
to go. When the cultivation of land was commenced by 
ploughing, this word was applied to the operation, and is 
found in every Indo-European dialect in some form or other. 
It was thence extended to any work which required skill, as — 

German, ar-beit. 

Gothic, ar-baith. 

Latin, ar-s.* 
In the course of time the distinction between the nomad 
tribes and those who cultivated the land became marked, and 
the latter were naturally designated by their distinguishing 
characteristics, as Aryas or ploughmen. The name thus con- 
nected itself with the progress of civilisation, and became a 
title of honour which the nation was proud to apply to itself. 
Hence in the Vedas we find Arya signifies faithful, devout, 
excellent. It is especially applied to those of pure race in 
contradistinction from persons of inferior caste. Aryavarta, 
the country of the Aryas, is anciently applied to Brahminical 
India par excellence. We find the name extended westward, 
and trace it in such names as Aram, Ararat, Armenia, Ari- 
maspi, &c. We find it in the Greek ouow, to elevate, to extol ; 
in the Irish " er," noble. Pictet derives Hib-er-nia, Ib-er-ia, 
from "Ibh," country, and " er," noble, the country of the 
noble people. 

* Thus, in Latin, " Art-ifex " signifies a skilled workman, an artist ; " Opi-fex," 
a common workman. 



38 

At what period the term "plough" was introduced and 
superseded the old "arjan," in the Teutonic aud Norse tongues, 
we can only conjecture. It is not found in Gothic, and is 
rarely met with in Anglo-Saxon. It must, however, have 
been introduced at an early period, as we find it in the 

Old German, pflug. 
Frankish, phluog. 

Norse, plog. 

Old Low German ploeg. 

It was probably introduced when the form of the instrument 
was changed. The original "ara" was, like the Eoman and 
Hindoo plough, calculated merely to scratch a furrow without 
turning over the soil. The change of form by the introduction 
of the mould board would naturally lead to a term for the new 
instrument expressive of turning over, which appears to be 
the radical meaning of pnugen. We find the idea in the Greek 
IloXew, which is applied in the same manner, and means both 
to turn over and to plough. 

Many of the terms connected with rural life are identical 
with our own, as — 



Grund-u, 


Ground. 


Gras, 


Grass. 


Hav-i, 


Hay. 


Haith-i, 


Heath. 


Wait-eis, 


Wheat. 


Bar-is, 


Bear or Barley 


Seth, 


Seed. 


Kaurn, 


Corn. 


Land, 


Land. 


Lein, 


Linen, Flax. 


Hug-s, 


Hedge. 


Triu, 


Tree. 


Sakkus, 


Sack. 


Vein-a, 


Wine. 


Vinth-jan, 


to Winnow. 


Thriskan, 


to Thrash. 


ith many others, 








39 



The terms in connexion with. a Gothic household fifteen 
hundred years ago were not very dissimilar from our own. Our 
word "home" is represented by the Gothic "haim." This 
word is found in all the Teutonic dialects, with slightly 
different shades of meaning — 

Old German, heime. 

Modern German, heim. 

Anglo-Saxon, ham. 

Old Saxon, hem. 

Swedish, hem. 

Danish, hjem. 

The Greek Kw/«j appears to have the same origin. The 
primary idea is that of a common habitation. In Gothic, it is 
used for village, as in the common Saxon termination, " ham/' 
A family was called a " heiv," a name certainly indicative of 
industry, but now restricted to a community of bees. The 
master of the house was called the " heiva-frauja." 

The name of their habitation was called "hus," house ; the 
door, " daur ; " the door-keeper, " daura-vards," or door- ward. 

One would like to verify the etymology of Home Tooke, 
identifying this word with the preposition " through ; " 
Gothic, " thairh ; " the connexion appears to be very natural, 
but, unfortunately, they do not coalesce. The words occur 
in every Teutonic tongue ; in the Low German dialects, the 
substantive begins with " d," and the preposition with " th." 
In the High German it is reversed, but in no case do they so 
approximate as to give any indications of a common source. 

Even in Sanskrit, the terms are separate; ^T s dwar (door) 

has no connexion with *T^ para (through, or beyond). A 

window, in Gothic, was called " auga-daura," eye-door ; the 
roof, "hrot;" Anglo-Saxon, "hrof," from "hrcefan," to hold 
fast; hence a "reef" in a sail. Greek, b-pocp-yj. 

Gibla, the gable. 

Ubizva, the eaves. 

Hauri, the hearth. 



40 

This originally meant a fire kindled on the floor ; so in St. 

John, 18, v. 18 — "haurja vaurkjandans nnte kald vas;'' 

" making a fire because it was cold." 

Baurd, a table, a board. 

Mes, a dining table, a board. Anglo-Saxon, myse. 

Hence, the terms " mess," " mess-mate." 
Mat, meat, 

Itan, to eat. 

Fodjan, to feed. 
Hlaif, loaf — bread. 
Miluk, milk. 
Salt, salt. 

Aurts, vegetables, hence 
Aurti-gards, Eng., orchard. 

Furniture was, doubtless, in the time we are speaking of, 
very simple. The terms employed were, however, the fore- 
runners of our own. Yvlrilst dining off the "baurd," or 
"mes," they sat on a " sitl," Old Eng., "settle," or on a 
" stol ; " Eng., " stool." These words are employed with 
the most dignified associations, a monarch's throne is only a 
"sitl." A judgment seat is the " staua-stol." " Bad-i " was<the 
name for the couch of repose, as "bed" is now. They fastened 
their doors with a " luka," as we do now with a lock. When 
weary, they rested their lower limbs on a " fotu-baurd," as we 
do now on a " foot-board " or " foot-stool." When visited 
occasionally by a "gast," Eng., "guest," he was waited on 
by the " mavi ;" Eng., " maid." The domestic relationships — 
Fadr, Sunu, Dauhtar, Barn, 

sufficiently identify themselves. When sick, they were visited 
by the " leikeis ; " Old Eng., "leech;" and when conquered 
by " dauths," " death," they were finally laid to rest, as we 
shall be, in the " grab ;*' Eng., " grave." 

The " qaimus " (quern) or hand millstone was amongst the 
Goths, as amongst all the Teutonic and Celtic nations, the 
usual implement for grinding corn ; but it appears that, in the 



rarth century, an advance had been made beyond mere hand 
labour. In St. Mark's Gospel, ch. 9, v. 42— where the pas- 
sage occurs — " It were better that a millstone were hanged 
round his neck," in place of the phrase, " \l6og jivXikoq, " some 
Greek manuscripts read, " /jlvXoq ovikoq ;" literally, " ass-mil- 
stone." This appears to have been the reading in the manu- 
script employed by Bishop Uliilas, who has rendered it in a 
manner which shows that the idea was quite familiar. " Asilu- 
qairns." That these primitive machines were employed about 
that period by the Teutonic races there can be no doubt. 
About the middle of the last century in the south of France, 
the remains of an ancient villa of the Frankish period were 
excavated and brought to light. Amongst these were found 
a pair of millstones of the usual hand-quern form, but of 
larger size, into the upper of which an arm was fitted, with a 
yoke to which an ass was harnessed,* exactly realising the 
idea in the text. 

The names of most of the domestic animals were identical 

with our own — 

ox. 

steer — bull. 

calf. 



Auhs-a, 

Stiur, 

Kalb-o, 

Gait-ei, 

Lamb, 

Vithr-u, 

Svein, 

Avi, 

Asilus, 

Fula, 

Hund, 

Dius, 

Dub-o, 

Han-a, 

Fugl, 



lamb — sheep, 
wether, 
swine, 
ewe. 
ass. 
foal, 
hound- 
deer, 
dove, 
hen. 
fowl. 



■dog. 



It might naturally be expected that the race whose warriors 



* Arts et Metiers des Ancieus, represents par les M onumens ; par Grivaud de 
laVincelle. Paris, 1819. 



42 

sacked the city of Borne, and established the kingdom of Italy 
on the ruins of the Eoman empire would possess a native 
vocabulary for arms and warlike terms. Many of these have 
been superseded in later times. Others are common to the 
whole race. 

" Skild-u," shield, is common to the whole of the Teutonic 
tongues — 

Old German, skiolder. 
Modern German, schild. 
Anglo-Saxon, scyld. • 

Swedish, skold. 

Danish, skjold. 

The root from which this term is derived is common to all 
the Aryan languages, and presents the general idea of cover- 
ing. Compare Sanskrit, ^T^T chhaya, a shadow. 

" Vepna " is the same word as our " weapon," and is used 
for arms or armour in general, whether offensive or defensive, 
equivalent to the Greek oVXa, for which it is used. It is 
found in most of the kindred dialects — 

Anglo-Saxon, voepen. 

Old German, wafan. 

Modern German, waffen — wappen. 

Swedish, vapen. 

Danish, waaben. 

Holl. waepenen. 

The Goths and Old Germans divided weapons into three 
kinds, " hogg-wapn," cutting instruments, such as swords ; 
" lagg-wapn," thrusting instruments, as spears ; and " skott- 
wapn," shooting instruments, as javelins and arrows. The 
" vepna," or weapon, possessed an important signification in 
their public assemblies, and in their jurisprudence. Our 
modern expressions of opinion in public meetings are derived 
from our Gothic ancestors. According to Tacitus, when they 
were displeased, they expressed it by groans ; when they were 



43 

pleased, they struck their shields with their weapons, as we 
no.w thump the tables, or give the " Kentish fire." * 

The term " wapentake," preserved to our own times as the 
name of a judicial court, is a relic descended to us from the 
remote forests of Germany. The court was so called from 
the fact that when sentence was pronounced the judge held 
out his spear, which all present touched in token of assent.f 

The origin of this word is curious and significative, as 
giving a glimpse of the pre-historic condition of the Teutonic 
race. The etymology has been glanced and guessed at by 
lexicographers, but, so far as I can find, has not hitherto been 
demonstrated. Though afterwards used for arms in general, 
there is evidence to shew that originally it was limited to defen- 
sive armour only. Ihre observes (sub voce,)! " wapn proprie 
veteres significasse theracem, galeam, ocreas, . et cetera, quae 
in proelium abeuntes induebant." He further offers an opinion 
that waffen, wapn, &c, are derived from a lost root signifying 
to plait, to bind round, " orta sint a radice deperdita, quse 
involvere cingere notaverit." We find in Gothic, " vaip " 
used for the plaited crown of thorns ; also " veipan," for the 
act of placing the wreath on the head of the victor at the 
Olympic games. The latter word is closely connected, if not 
identical, with the Anglo-Saxon weffan, or webban — 

German, Weben. 

Old Low German, Wippa. 
Latin, Viere, 

To twist or weave. 

Without going into further particulars, it may be stated 

that we are led insensibly, as the ultimate result, to the 

* " Si displicuit sententia, freinitu adspernantur ; si placuit, frameas concutiunt." 
— Tacit. De Mor. Ger. ch., ii. 

f " Vapnatake confirmatio sententise in judicio prolatse per contactum armorum, 
lectis enim suffragiis de causa examinata. hastain judex proferebat, quara adses- 
sores omnes tangentes, sententiam confirmabant, dcemt mid vapnataki armorum 
tactu judicatum. — Yerelius Ind. sub. voc. 

t Gloss. Suio-Goth, 1038. 



44 

Sanskrit root, 3[ ve, which embodies the idea of weaving and 

sewing, and which is found throughout all the Aryan tongues. 
From this inquiry we may fairly infer that the terms wepn, 
wapn, &c, originally signified a woven substance, as wejta and 
waipa do still in Icelandic. It would further appear that the 
first defensive armour of the Goths was nothing more than a 
thick woven or quilted garment ; that from thence it extended 
first to defensive armour of whatever substance made, and 
afterwards to arms in general. 

I have dwelt at some length on this term, principally to 
shew the extent of inquiry which may be opened up by a single 
word, and the interest which may be derived from the study 
conducted in the fair spirit of analytical inquiry. To those 
who have not entered upon the study, it may seem a little 
singular that the words wife, whip, weave, and weapon, should 
all be derived from the same original. 

That the Goths were not without metallic armour is proved 
from the native terms employed. 

" Hilni," helm-et, is found in all the Teutonic dialects in 
nearly the same form. The root of this word is found in the 
Old Norse, <c hilma;" Anglo-Saxon, "helan;" German, 
" hiillen," to cover, which branches out into a variety of signi- 
fications. In the days of chivalry, the pieces of tapestry which 
were thrown over the benches in the manner of modern anti- 
macassars, were called " hullings." In the Lancashire dialect 
of the present day the cover of a book is called the " hilling." 
In Anglo-Saxon, a crown is called " cyne-helm," or king's 
helmet, as in John, oh. 19, v. 5, ic thyrnene cynehelm " is used 
for the crown of thorns. " Helm" was also used in the sense 
of protector, as a component part of proper names, e.g., 
" Adhelin," noble protector ; " Friedhelm," defender of peace ; 
"Wilhemi," defender of repose/' It is an evidence of the 
martial influence of the Goths during the decline of the Koman 
empire, that the ancient terms for helmet, "galea" and 



45 

" cassis," should have been abandoned both in Low Latin, 
Italian, Spanish, and French, for the Teutonic term " helm," 
slightly modified. 

"Arw-asna," arrow; Anglo-Saxon, " arewa ;" Old Low 
German, " or ;" Swedish, " arf." This term is not found in 
the High German, where " pfeil " is the substitute ; Latin, 
"pilum." 

The use of the bow was not common amongst the Goths 
at the earlier period of their history, not being mentioned 
either by Caesar or Tacitus as amongst their weapons ; but 
there is abundant proof of its use at a later period. 

Many of the military terms now obsolete were common to 
the Goths, and our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. 

Heer, army. 

Sigis, victory. 

" Hansa," a troop, league, or association, whence the origin 
of the " Hanse towns." 

Brunjo, a breast-plate. 
Anglo-Saxon, Byrn. 
Old German, Bran. 
Swedish, Bryn-ja. 

Old French, Brugne, 
From " Bran," the breast. 

In the Constitutiones Caroli Magni, we find a law — 
" Bauga et brunnia non dentur negociatoribus," " bows and 
breast-plates not to be furnished to tradesmen." 

The employment of the metals as coined money forms an 
important epoch in the advance of a people from barbarism to 
civilization. In the fourth century, the Goths seem to have 
been in a transition state in this respect. Amongst all the 
Aryan races cattle has been the original representative of 
property, and the first medium of exchange. The Sanskrit 

term for cattle, ^I^ P asu ^ as passed into the Greek irui), ttcko 
(to possess)— 



46 



Latin, 


pecu. 


Gothic, 


faihu. 


Anglo-Saxon, 


feoh. 


Old German, 


film. 



Modern German, vieh. 

Swedish, fa. 

Danish, foe. 

In the whole of these, with the exception, perhaps, of the 
Greek, the term has been interchangeable with wealth in 
general. From the Latin "pecus," we have "peculium," 
private property; ef pecunia," first, property in general, and 
then coined money ; so in the Anglo-Saxon " cwic-feoh," or 
" gangend-feoh," applied to cattle or sheep ; " licgend-feoh," 
to immoveables ; and " weorc-feoh," to property in slaves.* 
The same analogy holds good in the Old German and Norse 
languages. 

Where coined money is specially alluded to in the Scripture 
and elsewhere, the Gothic version usually employs the foreign 
term untranslated, as "drakma," for Greek Spax/tv* "unkja," 
for Latin " uncia;" "sikl," for Hebrew " shekel." 

In other cases the Greek apyvpia is literally rendered by 
" silubreins," pieces of silver. The most general word 
employed, whether to express the Greek apyvpiov, the Latin 
"denarius," or "mina," is "skatts," a term running through 
all the sister tongues — ■ 

Old German, skazz. 

Modern German, schatz. 

Old Saxon, scat. 

Anglo-Saxon, sceat. 

Old Frisian, sket. 

Swedish, skatt. 

Danish, skat. 

Holl. schat. 

The general meaning is that of treasure, property in general, 

* Mat. 10, v. 9 — " Neebbe ne gold ne seolfer ne feoh in eowrum bigyrdlum •" 
neither gold nor silver, nor brass in your purses. 



47 

and by a secondary application, that of money. The deri- 
vation of the term, though it seems to have escaped the notice 
of Wachter, Ihre, Junius, and our older etymologists, is not 
far to seek, if we keep in mind the leading idea involved. The 
first notion of a circulating medium seems to have been, not 
that of trade or barter, but of obligatory payment, or compul- 
sory tribute. " Skolan," " skila," '' skulle," &c, in the old 
Teutonic dialects expressed obligation or debt, particularly the 
fines for homicide and other breaches of the law.* Some 
name must have been given to the property used for the pur- 
pose of paying the fine, and " skat," " skeat," &c, the terms 
so employed, seem to have been derived from the verb 
expressing the obligation, in the same way that " gelt," 
money, is derived from "gel ten," to owe or to pay. The 
change of vowel from "u" to " a" in forming the substantive 
is the ordinary rule in Sanskrit, as "kavi," a poet, from "ku," 
to sound; "plava," that which swims, from "plu" to swim. 
The German " sollen," English " shall," are derived from the 
same original ; also the old term " scot," as applied to a tax, 
and the old English " shot," descended to our own times for 
a score at a tavern. It is confirmatory of this derivation that 
the " shilling " — 

Old Low German, skillingr. 

Anglo Saxon, settling. 

Swedish and ) tit « 

Danish, } sMhD g- 

Holl. schelling. 

German, schilling — 

appears to have been the first coined money of the Teutonic 
races, and according to Wachter has the derivation alluded to 
above. The word originally meant a fine ; " laga skilling," 
a fine imposed by law, and then passed to the piece of silver 
used for the purpose. 

* So "skalk" signified a bond-slave, one who could not pay his fine for 
offences, and was therefore reduced to servitude. 



48 

"Schilling," is not found in the Old German, nor in the 
Gothic translation of the Scripture. It is, however, found in 
the Neapolitan fragments of the 5th or 6th century. In the 
Anglo-Saxon version of the New Testamemt, the word is used 
frequently as equivalent to the Greek " apyvpia." It may, 
therefore, fairly be inferred that coined money was first used 
by the Goths and Saxons about the fifth century of our era. 
There is one word for money in the Gothic version which is a 
little perplexing. In Mat. 5, v. 27, " thou shalt not depart 
thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing ; the Greek 
KodparrrjQ is translated by " kintus," a term found nowhere else, 
and of which the radical meaning and the derivation, are quite 
unknown. 

Proceeding on the principle that native terms in any art 
imply an indigenous origin, unless they can be shown to be 
translations ; the origin and progress of letters amongst the 
Gothic races presents a most interesting field of inquiry. 
The space at my command forbids me entering upon the sub- 
ject with any minuteness of detail, but I will endeavour to 
state with as much brevity as possible the general conclusions 
arrived at from a somewhat extensive area of investigation. 

The original terms for writing in the whole of the Aryan 
languages, in their primary meaning signify cutting or scratch- 
ing. They are as follow — 

Sanskrit, f%^ v likh. 
Greek, ypatyio. 
Latin, scribo. 
German, schreiben. 

This last is commonly supposed to be derived from the 
Latin, but from the general diffusion of the same radical 
through the Teutonic tongues, it is more probably of native 
growth. It is found in the 

Swedish, skrifwa. 

Low German, schrywen. 
Icelandic, skra ; 



49 

and in these cases it signifies " to write," in our sense of the 
term ; but originally it meant to scratch or cut, in which sense 
alone it is found in the Gothic "skreitan," to cut or tear; 
Anglo-Saxon "screopan," to scrape. 
It is also found in the Celtic tongues — 

Hibernian, schriobham. 
Cambrian, ysgrivenny. 
Breton, skriva, 

where it means to write. In the old Norse delects it was also 
used in the sense of drawing and painting. ^Our word " write " 
is found in the Anglo-Saxon, "writan," which is employed in 
the modern sense. The Norse " rita," signifies both to draw 
and to write. The German " reissen," now only used to 
express cutting, tearing, and sketching, formerly meant also 
to write. 

This may suffice to show the original idea involved in the 
expressions for writing. The only exception to this is the 
Gothic language, in which the term for writing points, as I 
will show hereafter, to' an altogether different origin.* 

All the original terms for books, writings, and manuscripts, 
signify either wood or the bark of a tree. 

In Greek, filfiXog is the inner bark of the papyrus. In 
Latin, " codex," meant a block of wood, " liber/' the inner 
bark of a tree. The Teutonic races, without exception, use the 
term "book" for a collection of writings. 

The history of this word is the history of Teutonic civili- 
sation. For its origin we must go back far beyond the range 
of history to the period before the Aryan race had left their 
eastern father-land and separated into distinct tribes. j^ 

We find in Sanskrit the root, *?^[ bhaksh, or ^^T bhag, to 
eat. The Sanskrit roots, if roots at all, of which there can be 

* All the terms above alluded to are very suggestive of one common origin, 
but unfortunately the Sanskrit root which would prove the converging point is 
wanting. 



50 

no doubt, are common to all the Aryan tongues, and must 
have existed from the origin of the race. From the abstract 
idea of eating, the simplest transition is to the thing eaten. 
We find in the Zend or ancient Persian, an Aryan tongue 
closely allied to the Sanskrit, the term buk applied to the 
Quercus bellota, a species of oak which produces edible fruit. 
Turning to the Greek language, we find the same root in 
(pay-(o to eat ; * (p-qy-og Quercus segilops, another species of 
oak. The same principle is found in 

Lithuanian, buk-a. 
Russian, buk-i. 
Slavonic, buk ; 

all describing a tree with edible fruit. In Latin, " fag-us," 

the beech tree, supplies the place of the oak, the emigrants 

from the east naturally attaching the old names to the forms 

most similar. The 

Irish, feagh-a. 

Cambrian, faw-ydd ; 

both signify beech tree, and sufficiently indicate their con- 
nexion. 
V^ In the Teutonic tongues, we have — 

Anglo-Saxon, boc. 

Old High German, puoch. 
Old Saxon, buk. 

Holl. beuk-en. 

Swedish, bok. 

This is the first stage in the history of the word. " Bok " 
signifies beech-wood, which flourished in the indigenous forests 
of Europe, and from its smoothness and hardness, was well 
suited for engraving and carving. 

We must now turn to the art of writing as it existed in the 
early ages of our Teutonic ancestors. Although for the most 

* It must be explained that by the laws of phonetic change derived from a 
careful comparison of numerous instances, " bh," in Sanskrit, is represented by 
" 0," in Greek, " f,' in Latin, and " b," in the Teutonic tongues. 



51 

part pre-historic, yet it has left sufficient evidence both in the 
terms of our language and in its actual remains, to enable us 
fully to understand its nature. All the modern European 
alphabets, it is scarcely necessary to mention, are derived from 
Asia through the Greek and Latin. Before their introduction, 
the Teutons were not unprovided with a system of letters 
which served, for all practical purposes, the requirements of 
those simple times. This was the Runic system of writing, 
which prevailed from an unknown antiquity, and was continued 
long after the Christian era.* 

The word " runa," in the Teutonic languages, originally 

signified a mystery, and is derived from the Sanskrit root ^ ru, 
to mutter, to murmur. From the same source procee the 
Latin "ru-mor," "ru-gio," a rau-cus/' and the Greek (b-pv-ofiat; 
so in Mat. ch. 4, v. 11 — " The mysteries of the kingdom of 
God;" Gothic, "runa thiudangardjos Guths." The writing 
consisted of characters cut on the sides and edges of small 
pieces of beech-wood. The novelty of the art imparted to it 
an air of mystery, which was kept up for the purpose of 
imposing on the ignorant, and imparting a solemn air to 
incantations and sorceries. The staffs so employed obtained 
the general name of "bok-stsef," or "buch-stab;" they also 
received specific terms, according to the purposes for which 
the writing was employed, as " run-stgef," when inscribed with 
magical characters ; Old German, " ruog-stab," an indictment 
or accusation, &c.f 
\s Tacitus, judging doubtless from his own observation, states 
that the ancient Germans were ignorant of letters, " literarum 
secreta viri pariter ac fceminse ignorant ;" yet several passages 

* Venantius Fortunatus, in the 7th century, writes — 

'.' Barbara fraxineis pingatur rhuna tabellis." 
This shews that the ash was occasionally nsed as well as the " buch," or beech, 
for writing on. 

+ Many fine specimens are preserved in the Museum of Northern Antiquities, 
at Copenhagen, 






52 



in his treatise give indications of the existence of the Runic 
system, of the nature of which he was probably ignorant. He 
speaks of their veneration for " Aurinia/' which, doubtless, 
means the "Alruna," or female sorcerers alluded to by Jor- 
nandes. He also mentions a mode of divination practised 
by the use of wooden slips with marks cut on the edges, which, 
after certain ceremonies, were thrown upon a white sheet, and 
afterwards taken up and interpreted according to the marks 
upon them. Nothing could more clearly indicate the original 
mode of Runic writing than this passage. 

When the writing began to be sculptured on stone, the mode 
adopted of forming letters was that of cutting a representation 
of the upright staff which formed the letter I, and by cross 
lines representing the incisions marking the distinctions of the 
other letters.* 

The term ei buch-stab," or " bok-stafT," thus became equi- 
valent to the Latin " litera," or letter, and is so used in all the 
Teutonic tongues. Even in English, we find it so employed 
in the 13th century — 

" And tatt he loke well thatt he 
An hoc staff write twiggess." 

Ormidum. 

There were many systems of letters formed on this principle. 
Thev were termed " Futhorcs," from the order in which the 
letters stood, f, u, th, &c, commencing the list, as a, b, c, do 
in the ordinary Roman or Phoenician alphabet. 

At what period the Roman and Greek alphabets finally 
superseded the Runic in Western Europe, it is impossible to 
determine with certainty. In the 5th century, Chilperic, king 
of the Franks, revised the alphabet and added several letters, 
and the influence of the church finally secured the ascendancy 
of the Roman letters. 

* " Hand dubie hsec est, quod ornnes literae Eunicee a prima et elementari 
litera I quae uianifesta siruilitudine scipioneui erectum representat, per similes 
baculos vel annexos, yel transversos, partim obliquos paitim incurvos oriautur,' 
— Wachter, p. 1575. 









53 

In the Gothic language the case was somewhat different. 
We possess the terms "runa," for mystery, and " boka," and 
"bokas," for books and writings. Although there can be little 
doubt that the Runic system prevailed amongst the Goths as 
amongst the kindred races, yet the earlier introduction of alpha- 
betical writing has obliterated the record of it. The term for 
writing in Gothic is "meljan," which comes from a root signify- 
ing to paint or blacken, equivalent to the Greek fxeXag, black, 
fieXairo) to blacken ; German, " malen ; " Swedish " mala." 
We have the remains of this root in the term " maul-stick," 
used by the painter to steady his hand. Here there is an 
entire departure from the primitive idea connecting writing 
with cutting and engraving in all the other kindred tongues. 
It seems a fair inference that the term was first applied 
at the time when Ulphilas translated the Scriptures into the 
Gothic language, and constructed an alphabet for the purpose. 
The MS. being doubtless written on parchment, the old term 
no longer applied, and a word expressive of painting or 
.colouring was more applicable. 

The old bok-staf gave way to flat tablets of wood which 
were called " bokas," and to parchments called " bok-pells," 
and at length the term settled down in every Teutonic language 
to the modern "book," " buch," &c* i-"""' 

The history of this word from its earliest traceable root, 
in Sanskrit, indicating the simplest animal wants, through its 
various applications down to its present use, is an epitome of 
the progress of the human race, and is, perhaps, as suggestive 
as any word in the English language of the essential identity 
of the great Aryan family. 



* For the purposes of calendars, these " bok-stafs" were continued down to a 
late period. Borel, in the preface to his " Lexicon Vocum. Antiq. Gallicar," says, 
" Les paysans se servent encore d'une espece de hieroglyfiques, en sorte qu' ils 
font des almanachs sur un morceau de bois, qui n'est pas si grand qu' une carte 
a jouer, ou sont marquez tous les mois et jours de l'annee, avec les festes et autre s 
choses notables, par un artifice singulier." 



54 

We have a curious glimpse into the habits of our remote 
ancestors in the terms employed for reading. In the Gothic 
language, as anciently in the sister tongues, to read and to 
siug were expressed by the same verb " singvan." Thus, in 
Luke, iv, 16, where our Lord entered into the synagogue, at 
Nazareth, and stood up to read, it is rendered " usstoth 
siugvan bokos ;" " he stood up to sing the writing." Again in 
1st Tim., iv. v. 13, " Till I come give attendance to reading," 
&c, is rendered, unte qimagaumei sangva boko," attend to the 
singing-of books. The word " redan," equivalent to our "read," 
meant to think, to comprehend, to counsel. In fact, anciently, 
reading orally and singing were one and the same thing. 
Reading was a modulated recitation, and singing was merely 
recitative.* By the 8th century, the words "redan" and 
" siugvan " had settled down into their modern meaning. In 
the Anglo-Saxon version of the gospels, Luke, iv, v. 16, is 
rendered " he aras thoet he roedde." 

I might proceed at much greater length. It would be 
interesting to show from the nomenclature of the most familiar 
ideas — the parts of the body — the relationships of life — the 
names of the heavenly bodies, and of the phenomena of nature, 
and by a large collection of verbs and adjectives predicative of 
actions, thoughts, feelings, and qualities, embracing a large 
proportion of those in daily use amongst us — that the Goths 
stood in very close relationship with our ancestors, but the 
limits of the present essay will not permit this. With one or 
two general observations I will bring my remarks to a close. 

I have already alluded to the rudeness and imperfection of 
the Anglo-Saxon language at the earliest period known to us. 
The deficiency in the inflexions, and in their absence the 

* In the services of religion, the musical intonation in reading has main- 
tained its position to the present day. This appears to have heen the case amongst 
the Jews in every age — "Jndsei ita pronunciant preces suas, nt potius canere 
quam precari eas diceres. Si dum recitant Textum, non prselegere, sed cantare 
eum videntur." — Grosgebauer, " De Ceremoniis Judaeoiiim." 



55 

want of suitable auxiliaries and particles to give precision to 
the meaning, indicate a transition state of degradation from 
its original inflexional character, without having acquired the 
compensation afforded by the modern grammatical system. 
In the Gothic version of the Scriptures, if this character 
appears at all, it is to a very small extent. The inflexional 
system, with the exception of the future and some other 
tenses of the verbs, is as complete as in the Latin, whilst the 
copiousness of the vocabulary gives great facilities in render- 
ing the niceties of the Greek. The subtle reasonings and 
abrupt turns in the epistles of St. Paul ; the noble bursts of 
eloquence which occasionally appear, are rendered in the 
Gothic with a faithfulness and force which are truly astonish- 
ing, and indicate a considerable amount of intellectual culture 
amongst the people speaking the language. Some passages 
in the Greek text, which depend for their effeot on the use of 
the same word in different senses, have been found very diffi- 
cult to render, with the proper point, into the modern Euro- 
pean tongues. I would instance a passage in the Epistle to 
the Komans, chap. xii. v. 3, " For I say, through the grace 
given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think 
of himself more highly than he ought to think ; but to think 
soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure 
of faith/' The original of the clause in Italics runs thus, — 
" fjitj v7rep(j)poyeTp Trap o het (f>povelv, a\Xa typovetv elg to (TOMppovelv ', " 
the point of the passage lying in the play on the word typovziv, 
which in our translation is entirely lost. I have met with no 
translation, in any version, which equals the Gothic in repro- 
ducing the delicate shades of the original. It runs thus, — 
the verb "frathjan," to think, being equivalent to the Greek 
(ppovziv, — " qitha auk thairh anst Guths, sei gibana ist mis, 
allaim visandaim in izvis ni mais-frathjan than skuli- 
frathjan, ak frathjan du vaila frathjan," where the fanciful 
play of the words is literally reproduced. 



56 

There is, occasionally, a poetical grandeur attaching to the 
derivations and associations of the old Gothic words, which is 
very striking. Our words " sea" and "soul" are descended 
respectively from the Gothic " saiv " and " saivala," Anglo- 
Saxon " sae" and " savl," and there is little doubt of their "being 
derived from a common root. The Latin " anima," and the Greek 
" ybi>xn," mean simply " the hreath," and are applied metaphori- 
cally to man's immortal part; but in the Gothic term a nobler 
image is presented. The soul is here the ocean of man's 
existence, like the sea, in its apparently limitless extent, with 
its storms and its calms ; its sunshine and its gloom ; its tides 
and its currents ; and its ever restless, insatiable energy. The 
conception is bold and forcible, and indicates a deeply reflec- 
tive turn amongst the people who could embody it in their 
language. 

I have now brought to a close my remarks on the Gothic 
language. My object has been to shew the essential identity 
of our own mother tongue, traced through its ancient forms, 
with the earliest form of the Teutonic which remains to us in 
the Gothic version of the Scriptures ; to prove so far as can be 
done in so small a compass, that all the modern Teutonic dialects 
may be traced to a common converging point, which lies very 
near the Gothic ; to indicate from the structure and inflexions 
of this ancient tongue its analogies with the other members 
of the great Aryan family, and its points of divergence and 
departure from them. 

I propose, on a future occasion, to enquire how far beyond 
the Gothic it is possible to trace the elements of our language, 
or, in other words, what connexion can be shewn to exist 
between the Teutonic dialects and the ancient Sanskrit roots. 



SANSKRIT ROOTS 



ENGLISH DERIVATIONS 



In two papers previously read before this society, I have 
endeavoured to illustrate the identity of our own mother 
tongue, in all its essential elements, with the ancient Gothic, 
the earliest form of Teutonic speech handed down to us. I 
have also shown that the position which the Gothic language 
holds, presents great facilities for tracing the connexion of 
the Teutonic branch with the other great stems of the Aryan 
family of tongues, especially with the Greek, Latin, and 
Sanskrit. It is my purpose in the present paper to continue 
the inquiry, by calling attention to a few instances of the 
radical connexion still to be traced, between the members of 
the family most widely separated both by time and space; the 
one from the extreme East, and preserving in its grammatical 
character the earliest forms, — the Sanskrit ; and the other, 
occupying the most advanced post to the West, and in many 
respects of the most modern development — our own English 
tongue. A few years ago any attempt of this kind would 
have been simply impossible, but the patient labours of the 
modern school of philology have done much towards remov- 
ing the difficulties, by investigating the laws of language in 
its permutations, and by establishing principles which may be 
relied on in inquries of this nature. Amongst these inquirers 
stands pre-eminent the name of Eranz Bopp, the publication 
of whose Vergleichende GrammatiJc, the first part of which 
appeared in 1833, created an entirely new era in the science 
of Philology. Up to that time, etymology had been little 



58 

more than a series of guesses, frequently shrewd and acute, 
but based on no principle, and appealing to no general laws. 
Jacob Grimm, the commencement of whose Deutsche Gram- 
matik was published in 1822, has exhausted the subject of 
the Teutonic languages in their co-relation and comparison, 
but to Bopp we owe the establishment of the laws of language 
on such sure and settled foundations, that future inquirers 
may tread firmly, and advance with confidence, where formerly 
every step was treacherous and uncertain. The labours of Bopp 
have been ably followed up by Professor E. Pott, of Halle, 
in his Etymologische Forschmigen, (Lemgo, 1859,) and 
latterly in our own country by Max Muller, whose " Lectures 
on the Science of Language " have done much to draw the 
attention of the educated classes to the importance and value 
of philological studies, and the interest attaching to them. 
Hitherto, however, not much has been done towards tracing 
out the connexion of our own language with the earliest of 
its congeners. Bopp's Comparative Grammar has chiefly to 
do with principles, laid down in the most masterly way, but 
adapted only for scholars. Our own etymologists almost 
uniformly terminate their inquiries with the Anglo-Saxon, 
Latin and Greek. One of our latest writers, Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood, whose Dictionary of English Etymology now in 
course of publication is most valuable, never attempts to go 
beyond the Gothic in his illustrations. The only English 
philologist, so far as my observation goes, who has drawn 
upon the Sanskrit for illustrations, is Mr. Oswald Cockayne, 
in his recent lively and interesting work entitled Spoon and 
Sparrow, and this only in a tentative and unsystematic 
manner. In Germany, in addition to the work of Professor 
Pott already alluded to, an elaborate volume was published at 
Vienna, in 1852, by Professor Holmboe, of Copenhagen, 
shewing the connexion of the Norse languages with the other 
Indo-European tongues, — illustrated by a large number of 



59 

Sanskrit examples.* With these exceptions the field is un- 
occupied, and will yield a fruitful harvest to the diligent 
investigator. 

If we compare words in different languages, of the identity 
of which there can be no question, we find considerable 
differences in the forms which they assume, for instance — 
English, thief German, dieb 

English, door German, thur 

English, creep Latin, serp-o 

Further examination has shewn that these transmutations are 
not arbitrary and capricious, but in all their varied forms 
exhibit the presence of law, often plain and simple, frequently 
subtle and delicate, and sometimes difficult and obscure. 
This is the great principle of modern philology, which has 
already produced great results, and promises still greater. By 
the discovery and application of these general laws, relations 
and affinities have been detected between languages formerly 
considered entire strangers to each other ; converging lines 
have been traced, so to speak, pointing in the direction of the 
common centre of widely extended families of speech, and 
the chaotic Babel of human tongues has been reduced to 
something like order and system. 

One of the most valuable discoveries was < the fact that 
particular letters or sounds in certain languages are uniformly 
represented in certain other languages by other special letters 
or sounds. This is called Grimm's law of Phonetic Trans- 
mutation. For example we find the Sanskrit <TS[t dasan 
represented by — 

Greek, Uko. 

Latin, decern 

Gothic, taihun 

English, ten 

High German, zehn — formerly zehan 

* " Det norske sprogs, voesentligste ordforraad, med Sanskrit os andre sproff 
af Samme Mt." Wien, 1852. 



60 

It will be seen that the three first have d for their initial 
letter, the two second t } the last z. From various instances 
of this kind the Indo-European languages have been sepa- 
rated into classes ; the Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, forming 
one group which may be called the classical ; the Gothic, the 
Norse tongues, and the Low German dialects, including the 
Anglo Saxon, forming a second ; and the High German — now 
consisting of a single language, but formerly divided into 
various dialects, the Theotisc, the Alemannic, the Francic, 
&c. — forming a third.* This law of transmutation applies to 
consonants only, the vowel changes being accounted for differ- 
ently. The consonants thus affected are classified as Tenues, 
Medials and Aspirates, thus — 

Labials. Dentals. Gutturals. 

Tenues P T K 

Medials B D G 

Aspirates F TH CH } 

Z H J 

The relation of these letters to each other in the cognate 

languages, as classified above, stands as follows : — 

Greek, Latin, Gothic and Old High 

Sanskrit. Low German. German. 

Tenuis answers to Aspirate answers to Medial 
Medial „ Tenuis ,, Aspirate 

Aspirate ,, Medial „ Tenuis 

The curious fact is here shewn that the Old High German 
stands to the Gothic in the same relation as the Gothic to the 
Classical ; where the Gothic substitutes an aspirate for the 
Greek tenuis, the High German substitutes an aspirate for 
the Gothic tenuis, and so with the other letters. This rela- 
tion may be represented geometrically, in a triangular form, 
thus — 

Classical 




High German C_ -^. Low German 

* The Celtic, Lithuanian, and Slavonic languages, equally belonging to the 
general Aryan stock, form no part of the present inquiry. 



61 

Starting from an angle and going round with the sun, the 
kindred letters always follow in the same order as indicated 
above. Or it may be illustrated thus — Any of the letters at 
any of the angles has always the same relative letter on the 
left and right. Thus, a tenuis has alawys a medial on the 
right, and an aspirate on the left. A medial has an aspirate 
on the right and a tenuis on the left. An aspirate has a 
tenuis on the right, and a medial on the left. These inter- 
relations are curious and interesting, but their origin and 
the regularity with which they occur are at present quite 
beyond the reach of our inquiries. 

The table of permutations is as follows — 

Greek, Latin, Gothic and Old High 

Sanskrit. Low German. German. 



Tenues 



Medials 



Aspirates ■ 



P F BorV 

T TH D 

K H G 

B P F 

D T Z or TH 

G K CH 

F B P 

TH D T 

G K 



CH} 
H J 



I have only space to give one or two illustrations of the 
operation of this law — 

I. INITIAL CHANGES. 

Sans. Lat. Gr. Gothic. Old High Ger. English. 

twam tu rv thu du thou 

bhri fero tyipaj baira piru bear 

MIDDLE CHANGES. 

upari super ufar ubar upon 

INITIAL AND MIDDLE. 

kapala caput Ke(pa\ri haubith haupit head 
Grimm's law, though exceedingly valuable, is liable to 
many limitations and exceptions, principally arising from the 
fact that most, if not all, of these cognate dialects had under- 



6.2 

gone farther changes and corruptions previous to the date of 
the earliest specimens handed down to us. The most archaic 
forms of each language approach the nearest to the ascertained 
law. 

In order to render intelligible the remarks which follow, I 
must now say a few words on the Sanskrit alphabet, probably 
the most scientific and elaborate phonetic arrangement which 
is found in any language. In a rapid sketch like the present, 
I must pass by the vowels and diphthongs, merely remarking 
that they consist of long and short a, long and short i 3 long 
and short u ; o and <?, the diphthongs ai and au ; ri is treated 
as a vowel long and short, and the combination hi is also 
classed as a vowel, though only found in a single word. 

The consonants are classified according to the organs 
employed in producing them, commencing at the throat and 
ending at the lips. 

GUTTURALS. 

Hard, surd or tenuis ^J k 

Soft, sonant or medial 3j g 

Hard, aspirated ?^ kh 

Soft, aspirated ^ gh 

Nasal ^ 

ng 

Simple aspirate ^ h 

PALATALS. 

Hard ^T ch 

Soft SJ j 

Hard, aspirated ^ chh 

Soft, aspirated ^ jh 

Nasal 3f 

Sibilant ^ sh 

CEREBRALS. 

Hard ^ t 

Soft ^ d 



Hard, aspirated 


3 


th 


Soft, aspirated 


s 


dh 


Nasal 


^ 


nt 
nd 


Sibilant 


*T 


zh 


DENTALS. 






Hard 


rf 


t 


Soft 


* 


d 


Hard, aspirated 


^ 


th 


Soft, aspirated 


T* 


dh 


Nasal 


^ 


nt 
nd 


Sibilant 


* 


s 


LABIALS. 






Hard 


V 


P 


Soft 


^ 


b 


Hard, aspirated 


XR 


ph 


Soft, aspirated 


^ 


bh 


Nasal 


*T 


m 


SEMI-VOWELS. 






^T y ^ r ^ 1 


^ 


V 



It will be seen that whilst the Sanskrit possesses many 
sounds which are lost in the cognate languages, others are 
deficient, such as the sound of f, and the dental aspirate re- 
presented by the English th. The palatals are not found in 
either Latin, Greek, Gothic or High German — that is in their 
early forms. They have been subsequently introduced into 
most of the modern European languages. 

I now come to the consideration of the Sanskrit roots, the 
ultimate results of the closest analysis directed to the subject, 
and beyond which inquiry cannot go. They are, so to speak, 
the elementary atoms out of which the wonderful structure 
of the Aryan family of tongues has been built up. It would 
be too much to assert that all the radical forms of every 



64 

Aryan language are to be found in Sanskrit. A large number 
have doubtless been lost in Sanskrit, which form essential 
elements of other tongues, as many exist in Sanskrit which 
other tongues have not retained, but thus much may be as- 
serted, that many Sanskrit roots are extensively diffused 
throughout every Aryan language, and that Sanskrit is the 
only language in which true roots have been preserved. This 
arises from the peculiarities of Sanskrit grammar, a large 
portion of which consists in the formation from the roots of 
crude forms or bases capable of inflexion. 

A Sanskrit root is a primary monosyllabic sound " which 
conveys some simple idea appearing under different modifica- 
tions in the derivatives from it." * Contrary to the theories 
of our older writers on language, these roots all convey 
abstract ideas, though of the simplest kind; for instance 
^fa jiv conveys the idea of life or living, but it is neither a 
substantive, verb, nor any other part of speech, and cannot 
be employed as such until it has undergone certain modifica- 
tions. To live is ^Vf^cT jivitum ; life is ^cf jivan. The 
prolific nature of these simple roots we shall see presently. 

There are about two thousand roots in the Sanskrit lan- 
guage as it exists, but many of these are only secondary and 
derivative, though grammatically treated as roots. Bopp is 
of opinion that on close investigation they might probably be 
reduced to about five hundred. 

The Sanskrit roots are of two classes ; Verbal, from which 
spring verbs and nouns, and Pronominal, from which spring 
the pronouns, and all original prepositions, conjunctions and 
particles. The former class is by far the most numerous and 
prolific. From this class my illustrations will be chiefly 
derived. 

The Verbal roots are divided into ten classes according to 
the mode in which the declinable base is prepared for in- 

* Monier Williams' Sanskrit Grammar, 2nd edit., p. 39. 



65 

flexion. Two modes of conjugation are adopted, the Para- 
smai-pada, (words for another) used for active transitive verbs, 
and the Atmane-pada, (words for one-self or soul words) used 
principally in the sense of the middle and passive voices. 

I have made these explanations as short and simple as 
possible ; but some preliminary remarks were absolutely 
necessary to enable those who may not have turned their 
attention to the subject to understand what follows. I will 
now proceed with my illustrations. 

One of the simplest abstract ideas is that of stability, ex- 
pressed by the English word to stand. Eadically this word is 
found in every Aryan language in an almost infinite variety of 
forms, the connexion between which previous to the study of 
Sanskrit, it was almost impossible to determine. They are all 
now traceable to the root ^f stha (1st class Parasmai and 
Atmane) inflected in the present tense tishtami, iishtasi, tish- 
tati ; Zend or old Persian histami. In Greek we have craw, 
which has been abandoned for its derivative itmifu to stand ; 
(TToa, a place, a colonnade ; arrjXr) a column, ara-Siog standing 
firm, &c. In Latin — sto, sta-re, sta-tio, sta-tuo, (to cause to 
stand, to appoint), sta-tor (one who appoints), sta-tua ( a 
fixed image), sta-tura, sta-tim, sta-tus, sta-bilis, sta-gnum, 
sta-bulum, dee. In compounds — si-sto, ob-sto, con-sto, re-sto, 
ex-sto, super-sto, inter-sto, con-sti-tuo, re-sti-tuo, sub-sti-tuo* 
Slavonic, sto-ju to stand ; Hibernian, sta-d to stop ; Gothic, 
sta-nden, with its compounds, af-standan, at-standan, bi- 
standan, mith-standan, in-sfandan, us-standan, dec, sta-ths, 
a place, stains a rock, a stone. 

In Old German we have the crude form near akin to the 
root in stan, (Mod. Ger. ste-hen), from which proceed a very 
large number of derivatives, gi-stan (bestehen), ana-stan 
(anstehen), ar-stan (erstehen), fora-stan (verstehen), &c, 

* For the change of a into i in these compounds, see Bopp, Comp. Gr., 
§ 6, and cxi. 



66 

with a large number of compounds ; stiftan, to appoint, place, 
with' its compounds. Sto-c, the trunk of a tree, a beam ; 
statt — stadt, a place, a city. In Anglo-Saxon, sta-ndan, 
sta-pol, an appointed place, a prop ; sta-thol, a foundation ; 
stoef, stoc, stow, (a place) ; sta-ith, ste-de, &c. 

The Low German dialects, the Old Saxon, the Old Frisian, 
the Dutch, and the Norse languages have all corresponding 
classes of words from the same root. 

In English their name is legion, descended to us both from 
the Teutonic and Classic sources of our language —sta-nd, 
sta-te, estate, sta-ndard, sta-tion, sta-tionary, ste-ad, ste-ady, 
sta-ple, sta-ble, sta-tue, sta-tute, sta-ture, sta-ted, sta-y, 
sta gnant, sta-unch, sta-ll, sta-ke, sta-ge, sta-ck, sta-ff, 
sta-ith, sto-ne, dec. When we consider that these (and many 
more) are merely modifications of the primitive idea expressed 
by the root sthd, we may begin to appreciate the prolific 
nature of language ; its vast capability of extension and 
accommodation to the necessities of human thought, and the 
simplicity of its laws in its earliest development. 

Our word to " go " expresses the simple idea of volun- 
tary motion. It finds its root in the Sanskrit — *pfl^ gam, 
Parasmai 1st class. Present gachchhami, Infin, gantum. 
The form in Zend is Z'engiu. Lithuanian kan-hu. Gothic 
gan-gan, with its compounds at-gangan, mith-gangan, &c, 
gangs — a street, gate, passage — . 

Old Saxon, ) 

Anglo-Saxon, r gan-gan 

Old German, J 

Old Low German, gan-ga 

Old Frisian, gun-ga 

o 

Swedish, ga 

Danish, gaa 

Modern German, ge-hen 
Bopp is of opinion that to 



67 



quam, quiman 
quem-an 



kom-a 

kum-a 

kom-en 

kom-ma 

kom-me. 

kom-men. 



same root, to which he refers the Latin ven-io, originally 
guem-io. 

Gothic, 

Old German, 

Old Saxon, ] 

Anglo-Saxon, J 

Old Low German, 

Old Frisian, 

Holl. 

Swedish, 

Danish, 

Modern German, 
In the Gothic language qui?nan and gangan are not unfre- 
quently employed to express the same meaning as equivalents 
for the Greek epxe<r$ai ; so Mat. 3, v. 11 — "He that cometh 
after me is mightier than I." Gothic — " Sa afar mis gangida 
svinthoza mis ist." Mar. 1, v. 7 — " There cometh one 
mightier than I after me." Gothic — " Qimith svinthoza mis 
sa afar mis." This tends to confirm Bopp's theory of their 
common origin. 

There is a word much used hy our old writers, steyen, or 
steighen, expressive of motion upwards, which has unac- 
countably disappeared from our language since the time of 
Chaucer and Wickliffe. Its root is found in the Sanskrit 
f%^ stigh ; 5th class, Parasmai, stighnomi, stighnosi, 
stighnoti. Greek, ordyu, to go up. 

The only trace of the root in Latin is stega, Greek, crriyri, 
the deck or raised part of a ship. 

Gothic, steig-an, to ascend, 
Old Low German, 

stig-a 



a, a path 



Old Frisian, 

Swedish, 

Danish, 

Holl. 

Modern German, 



stig-e 

stij-gen 

steig-en, steg, a wooden bridge. 



68 

Anglo-Saxon, stigan, stigh-el (a stile), stlg-rap (stirrup), 
stceg-ers (stairs), stig-e (a ladder, still 
called provincially a " stee" or " steigh") 

" Sothely aftir thes dayes we made reedy and steygeden to 
irlm." — Wickliffe. Acts of the Apos., ch. 21, v. 15. 
" He steigh up to hevene 
And on his fader ryght hand 
Kedelich he sitteth." 

Piers Ploughman. Orede. 

We have in the English language two classes of words 
descriptive of the relations arising from birth and race. One 
class is derived from Latin and Greek, such as gentle, ge?iea- 
logy, genius, generate, &c. ; the other of native Teutonic 
origin, such as kin, kind, kinsman, &c. Both these classes 
find their origin in the Sanskrit root — 

^w^jan. Conjugated in the Parasmai form, 4th class, 

it signifies to produce, originate, beget. 
Present. jajanmi, jajansi, jajanti. 
Infinitive, jajanitum. 
In the Atmane form, 3rd con., it means to be born. 
Present, jdye, or janye, jdyishe, jdyite. 
Infinitive, jay turn. 
Greek, yev-io, yiyvoiicu, to be born, to be. 

yzvzh birth, yev-oQ race, yev-eariQ origin, beginning, &c. 
Latin, gen-o, altered to gign-o, to beget; gn-ascor, to be 
born ; gen-s, gen -us, gen -it us, &c. In-gen-ium, in-gen-uus, 
pro-gen-itor, &c. 

The Sanskrit 5f«TCt janaka is equivalent to Latin geni-tor^ 
father. W^TSfit janako, woman, corresponds with Greek 
ywaiK from ywcLKi. ^*[jana, man, probably in the feminine 
gfwfT jandy corresponds with 

Greek, yvvr\ 
Gothic, qyino 



Theotisc, qvino 

English, 1 wan 
6 ' queen 

The English words derived from the Classical source are 
very numerous, and branch out into a great variety of mean- 
ings — gen-ealogy, gen-eral, gen-erate, gen-ital, gen-eric, gen- 
erous, gen-ius, gen-ial, gen-tle, gen-teel, gen-tile, gen-uine, 
gen-us, with their compounds. 
The Teutonic stem gives us 

Gothic, kuni (race, kin). 

Old German, kun-ni 

Old Saxon, cun-ni 

Old Low German, kyn 

Old Frisian, ken 

Hollandish, kun-ne 

Swedish, kon 

Danish, kjon 

Anglo-Saxon, cyn, cyn-ren 

English, kin, kindred, kinsfolk, kind, 

kinship, kindle, (to bring forth.) 

Our word king, Anglo-Saxon, cyning, has often been 
fancifully connected with cun-ning and can-ning, i.e., the 
man that kens, or the man that cans, on the prin- 
ciple that " knowledge is power." But there can be little 
doubt that the true etymology is from cyn, race, and ing, son 
or descendant, the man of birth, or of noble race, in the same 
manner that cetheling, " the son of the noble one," was used 
as the title of the king's heir. 

The root ^\jn&, though quite distinct in Sanskrit from the 
last, has given rise to some confusion in the cognate lan- 
guages, from the close resemblance of the derivatives. It 
signifies to " know," and is conjugated in the Parasmai 
and Atmane forms, 9th class. 

Present, janami, janasi, janati, 
Greek, yvo-eo), ytvw-<r/ew 



70 

Latin, gno-sco, co-gno-sco 

Gothic, kunnan 

Old German, kunnan 
Swedish, kdnna, kunna 

Danish, kjende, kunne 

Hollandish, kennen 
Mod. German kennen, kdnen 
Anglo-Saxon, cnawan, kunnan 

There can be no doubt that our auxiliary can, like the 
German honnen, is an adaptation of the primary meaning, 
knowledge, implying ability. Chaucer uses can in the sense 
of knowing, conne in the sense both of knowledge and ability. 

" I wot wel Abraham was an holy man, 
And Jacob eke, for as ever I can." 

Wife of Bathe's Tale. 

" Then said Melibee : I shall not conne nswere unto so many faire 

resons as ye putt en to me." 

Tale of Melibeus. 

The double derivation of which I have spoken, is found in 

many classes of English words with changes of meaning more 

or less important. The terms mortal, immortal, dec, referring 

simply to decease, are derived from Sanskrit through Greek 

and Latin. The word murder, implying a violent death, is 

derived from the same root by a Teutonic descent. 

jf mri or mar, to die ; Causative to kill, to slay. 

6th Con. Atmane. 
Present mriye, mriyase, mriyate 
;r<J mrita, mortal 

Latin, mor-i, to die ; mors, death ; morbus, disease ; 

im-mor-talis, deathless. 
Greek, fiopog, death, fate ; a-fx(3poro£ for a-fipo-roQ, im- 

mortal. 
Lithuanian, mir-ti, to die 
Russian, s-mer-ti, death 



71 

From this primitive meaning of the root our words mortal, 
immortal, dec, are derived. 

From the Causative sense, to kill, slay, descend — 

Gothic, maur-thr, murder 

German, mord, morden 

Anglo-Saxon, morth, mor-thor, Sc. 
Swedish, 



1 

Hibernian, mar-bhaim, I kill ; mar-bhan, a corpse. 



mord 
Danish 



The recent progress of a sound system of philology and 
the light derived from the study of Sanskrit are well shewn 
by reference to the speculations on these words. Home 
Tooke* derives murder, morrow, and mirth, from the same 
original, which he says is found in the Gothic and Anglo- 
Saxon verb merjan, merran, which means to scatter, to dissi- 
pate. Mirth is the third person singular of the verb, and 
signifies that which dissipateth care and sorrow. Morrow and 
Morning are the past tense and past participle, and signify 
the dissipation of clouds and darkness. The Anglo-Saxon 
Morthe is that which dissipates life, and hence is derived 
French Meurtre and Latin Mors. 

The speculation is ingenious, but will not bear examination. 
To say nothing of the odd notion of a Latin radical being 
derived from an Anglo-Saxon inflexion, it may suffice to 
remark that the Gothic merjan has in no case the meaning 
of " to scatter, dissipate." Its uniform signification is " to 
declare, announce, preach," and is the equivalent of Greek 
KTjpvacreLV, SiakaXe'iy, evayyeXiZecrSca ; " merjands daupein idrei- 

gos," " preaching the baptism of repentance." 

Dr. Eichardson adopts Home Tooke's etymology, with a 
slight difference, suggesting that the Gothic verb maurthrjan 
was probably formed from the third person singular of Anglo- 

* Diversions of Parley. Taylor's Edition, 1857, pp. 461, 614, 



72 

Saxon myrran to mar, and the English noun and verb from 
this. 

We are not here concerned with the etmology of Mirth and 
Morrow ; whatever may be their derivation, the direct con- 
nexion of Latin mors, Gothic maurthr, English murder, with 
the Sanskrit root mri, is clear and distinct. When such hap- 
hazard guesses as these are put forth as serious inferences by 
our highest authorities, it is manifest that the whole system 
of our English etymology requires revision. 

Many of the Sanskrit roots, in the vital energy which they 
display in accommodating themselves to the progressive ne- 
cessities of human thought, have put forth derivatives widely 
extending the application of the original idea, but in most 
cases the connexion is capable of being traced, and possesses 
considerable interest, from the light it throws on the progress 
of the human race. I will give a few instances of this kind — 

0^ dam, 4th class Parasmai 
Present damyami, damyasi, damyati 
Infinite damitum 

The primitive idea in this root, which we shall find more or 
less involved in all its derivations, is that of arranging, setting 
in order. In the causative form applied to inanimate objects, 
it means to put together, to construct fligare, struerej ; 
applied to living beings it means to tame, to subdue. In the 
neuter it has the sense of fitting, becoming, ^*TT damana 
means a tamer, equivalent to the Greek ^afx-og, l-n-nrodafMoe a 
horse tamer. In this sense we have — 

Greek, dajjL—au), da/x-a^oj 

Latin, dom-o 

In Gothic, according to Grimm's law, the medial " d " is 
changed into the tenuis " t " and it becomes tam-jan, Anglo- 
Saxon tam-ian, English tame. In High German the tenuis 
" t " is further exchanged by Grimm's law for the aspirate 



73 

" z " equivalent to " tb," and it beomes zdkm-en, to tanie, 
whence zautn, a bridle. 

The Swedish, Danish, and Hollandish, follow the Gothic 
in the word tarn. 

The primary meaning of the root, that of order and ar- 
rangement, is shewn in the word <^q dama, which means 
soothing the mind after perturbation. This is further carried 
out by applying it to the family connexion, diMcft dampati, 
signifying a married pair, wife and husband. 

The same application is made in Greek, where lafi-ap means 
" a wife or spouse," whilst a maiden was called adafi-aarog, one 
untamed or unyoked. 

In Latin this sense is widely applied. Dom-ns, originally 
means the home, the family, rather than the building in which 
they dwell. Dom-inus and dom-ina are the master and mis- 
tress of the household, whence a large class of secondary 
forms, dom-icilium, do?n-inor, dom-esticus, dom-inium, (a 
feast in the house), &c. The derivatives from this source 
are very numerous in the Romance languages, dam-a, donna, 
don, dame, ma-dame, ma-dem-oiselle, dim-anche, (from dom- 
inie a,) &c. 

In English also this branch from the root has been very 
prolific. We have dame, dom-e, dom-estic, dom-ain, dom-inate, 
dom-ineer, dom-icile, dom-inical, &c, principally through the 
French, this application of the root not having obtained 
currency in the Teutonic languages. 

In the sense of being fitting or becoming, we have Gothic 
tim-an* Luke v, 36 — "The piece out of the new agreeth 
not with the old." 

Gothic — " thamma fairnjin ni ga-tim-id thata af thamma 
niujin " — 

* For the law of change from the Sanskrit " a " to the Gothic '■ i," see Bopp, 
Comp. Gram., I, p. 56. 



74 






Old German, 


zim-en 


Modern German, 


ziem-en 


Anglo-Saxon, 


sem-an 


English, 


seem, beseem 



As applied to inanimate things in the sense of construction 
we have — 

Greek, Se[i-(o, to build, construct 
$e/j.-ag, the human frame 

Ha building 
cwfx-a, ) 

According to Grimm's law, the dem of the Greek becomes 

zim in High German, and tim in the Gothic dialects. Our 

word timber is usually supposed to apply exclusively to wood, 

and is traced by Pictet* to Sanskrit, ^$f dambh, to burn. 

This derivation, however, is not borne out on full inquiry. 

In the Old Teutonic dialects — 

Old German, zim-bar 

Gothic, tim-r 

Norse, tim-mer 

signified both a room or building, and the material, whatever 
it might be, of which it was constructed, and is used more 
frequently to describe stone than wooden construction, 
Wachtert gives the meaning " Materia unde aliquid fit." 
Junius J remarks, " Constat materiam tarn ligneam quam 
lapideam unde aliquid efficitur, timber appellari, immo me- 
talla alemannice zimbar vocari." 

In the Old Norse, we read, " Slahans dor up eller hans 
tymber sonnar." " If they should burst the door, or break 
open the room." — Stadga om Urbotomal. 

In the Gothic New Test, Ephes. ii, 20-2. — " Built upon the 
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself 
being the chief corner stone ; in whom all the building fitly 

* Orig. Indo-Europ., I, p. 211. 
t Gloss. Ger. sub voc. { Gloss. Ulph. 



75 

framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord ; in 
whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God 
through the Spirit." Gothic — " Ana-timridai ana grundu- 
vaddjau apaustaule jah profete at visandin auhumistin vaih- 
stastaina silbin Xristau iesu ; in thamma alia gatimrjo 
gagatiloda vahseith du alh veihai in fraujin ; in thamma jah 
jus mithgatimridai sijuth du bauanai Guths in ahmin." 

It is remarkable that the word timr is never employed in 
the Gothic language in the sense of wood. Bagm beam, ans 
beam, and triu tree, are uniformly employed. 

In Anglo-Saxon, timbrian, getimbrian, to build, getim- 
brung, a building, are equally used to describe stone con- 
structions. Mark xiii, 1 — " Master, see what manner of 
stones, and what buildings are here." " Lareow ! loca hwylce 
stanas her synd and hwylce getimbrunga thyses temples ! " 

As the German and English forests furnished the readiest 
material for ordinary building, the term timber naturally 
became mainly associated with wood, until it gained its present 
exclusive use. In the same way the French word plancher, 
which simply means the floor, became in English the word 
plank applied to the wooden boards of which a floor is with 
us usually constructed. The German term zimmer-holz, wood 
applicable for building, preserves a reminiscence of the ori- 
ginal meaning of the word. 

JTT w «> to measure, to parcel out 

3rd Con. Atmane. 
Present mime, mimishe, mimite 
2nd Pret. mame 

Employed also in the sense of giving out — - 

^ «ft f*nftcF^ wAe no mimitam, give us food. 

Rigveda. 

We have here, as in so many other cases, words in English 
descended from the same root by both lines of parentage. 



76 



Greek, /ne-rpov, a measure or rule, with its numerous derivatives 

/jufieo/jiai, to take the measure of, to imitate 

a-fio-Tog, unmeasured 

/jie-aog, middle 

firj-vi], the moon, the measurer 
Latin, me-to, me-tior, to measure 

im-ma-nis, huge, unmeasured 

me-nsura, measure 

me-dius, middle 

me-nsa, month 

mo-dus, a measure 

mo-dero, to keep within measure 
hence modest us, <£c. 

me-ditor, originally to act or speak in a measured way, 
to exercise. 

From this source, both direct and through the French, we 
have a large number of words ; measure, with its various 
compounds and derivatives ; mediate, medium, immediate, 
dc, meditate, modest, moderate, modulate, &c. 

In the Teutonic division we have — 

Gothic, mi-tan, to measure 
mi-taths, measure 
ma-itan, to cut, divide 
me-na, the moon 
me-nath, month 
mid-ja, middle 
Old High German, me-zan, to measure 
ma-no, moon 
ma-noth, month 
Old Low German, me-ta, mani, manadi 
The Norse languages correspond. 

Anglo-Saxon, me-tan mo-na, mo-nath, mid-de, middle 

English, to mete, moon, month, middle, mean, meet. 

Our word meat for food appears to be derived from the 
same source. On this word Home Tooke observes, " In 






77 

Anglo-Saxon meet (whatever is eaten) is the past participle of 
the Gothic verb matjan ; Anglo-Saxon, metian, edere, to 
eat. Dr. Richardson quotes Tooke and as usual adopts his 
etymology. The Gothic verb matjan, from the strict nature 
of Gothic grammar, is itself derived from mat, meat/ and can- 
not have given rise to it. The Anglo-Saxon verb metian, 
metsian, which has its congeners in the sister languages, 
never signifies to eat, but uniformly " to deal out," to give to 
eat.* The words Ad glo- Saxon mete, Gothic mat, dec, are 
really the participles of the verbs metan, mitan, and signify- 
not food in general, but that which is meted or dealt out at 
table. The same thing occurs in Sanskrit where *rfaT mdnsa, 
from the same root, signifies caro, flesh. 

There is every reason to believe that our word mother is 
derived from the same root. TffrT matri, mother (matar 
in inflexion), is a noun of agency, formed according to the 
rules of Sanskrit grammar from the root 3TT m ®> an( l signifies 
a dispenser, dealer out. From thence it has descended into 
every branch of the Aryan family 

Greek, firjrrjp 

Latin, mater 

German, mutter 

Anglo-Saxon, meder, moder 

Swedish, moder 

Hollandish, moeder 

The Gothic being the only Teutonic language in which it is 
wanting, its place being supplied by the term aithei. 

It may be remarked that this mode of forming the noun of 
agency by the addition of ri or ar to a form of the verb is 
identical with the mode still adopted in our own tongue ; 
and which enables us, quite legitimately, to form new words 
from any verb which may be introduced into the language. 

* Sax. Chron., 1013. " Tha bead he that man sceolde his here, metian, and 
horsjan." Then commanded he that his army' should be fed, man and horse. 
Ps. Ixxx, 6. " Thu metsast us." Thou givest us food. 



78 

Almost every verb is capable of forming substantives in this 
manner. Help, help-er, think, think-er, run, run-ner, &c. 
So from the verb mete, in the sense of dealing out, the noun 
met-er is exactly equivalent to our word mother, which bears 
the same original meaning in a more antiquated form. 

The other nouns of relationship are formed in the same way. 
Father, daughter, sister, brother, are all Sanskrit nouns of 
agency, formed upon verbal roots. Father is from fqcT yitri, 
corrupted from Tjrf patri or pat ar, according to Bopp, which 
is derived from Xf^pat, to defend, sustain. 
Zend, patare 
Greek, 7rarr]p 
Latin, pater 
By Grimm's law, the initial tenuis changes in the German 
dialects to the aspirate. 

Gothic, fadar 

Old German, fatar 

Modern German, vater 
Swedish, 



fader 
Danish, 

Old Frisian, feder 

Anglo-Saxon, fadar 

Hollandish, vader. 

Daughter is, in Sanskrit, if^d duhitri, or duhitar, derived 
from , ^| duh, mulgere, extrahere, and signifies literally milker 
or milkmaid. All the primary names of the family relations 
are derived from the office each sustained in the primitive 
household, and in a pastoral state of society the duty of 
milking naturally devolves on the young maidens of the 
family. This derivation has been doubted. Mr. Cockayne * 
says — " This appears to me very doubtful. In general in 
ancient times men milked : cattle that roam over unlimited 
pastures are very wild, and it was never convenient to send 

* Spoon and Sparrow, pp. 118, 331. 



. 



79 

the maidens far from home. The word, also, is correlative, 
the maiden is not daughter either to the cow or to the family." 
This seems hypercriticism. Whatever construction we may 
put upon the fact, there can be no question either as to 
the derivation of duhitar from duh, nor of the affiliation of the 
term in most of the Aryan languages. A parallel case occurs 
in another family relation, the derivation of which is within 
our own tongue. Wife, originally wif-man, meant, as is 
well known, the weaver, in contradistinction from the husband, 
who was the wcepn-man or soldier, but although weaver to the 
family, the term became restricted in course of time to her 
conjugal relation, from the fact of the wife, in our sense of 
the term, being always, or usually employed in preparing the 
garments for the family. So, the daughters in our sense of 
the term, being the ordinary milk-maids, the duhitar became 
inseparably associated with the filial relation. 

Greek, dvydrrip 
The Greek aspirate, by Grimm's law, becomes 

Gothic, dauhtar 

Old Low German, dottu 

Swedish, dotter 

Danish, datter 

Anglo-Saxon, dohter 

The medial changes to the tenuis in the High German — 
Old German, tohtar 
Modern German, tochter 
" Brother," Sanskrit ^fg bhrdtri, or bhratdr, appears to be 
derived from w bhri, and signifies bearer or helper, an expres- 
sive term, as applied to the fraternal relation. 

The Sanskrit " bh " is usually expressed by the Greek 0, and 

Latin/". 

Greek, <f>parr]p 

Latin, frater 

The classic aspirate changes to the Gothic medial — 



80 

Gothic, brothar 

Old Low German, brodar 
Swedish, ] 

Danish, } broder 

Anglo-Saxon, broihor 

In High German the medial is exchanged for the tenuis. 
Old High German pruodar, softened in Modern German to 
bruder. " Sister " is represented in Sanskrit by " swasri " or 
" swasar." The primary meaning is somewhat obscure. 
t«U^ swddu, signifies pleasant, agreeable 
Gothic, sutis 
Latin, sua vis 
English, sweet 
According to this the sister would stand to the brother in the 
relation of soother, consoler. Let us hope that this is a 
more probable derivation than the one suggested by Bopp, 
from ^ swa " suus/' and ^fTT sar " femina." which has re- 
ference solely to the intimate family relation of the parties. 



Latin, 


sor or 


Gothic, 


svistar 


Old German, 


suestar 


Old Frisian, 


swestar 


Swedish, 


syster 


Danish, 


soster 


Hollandish, 


suster 


Anglo-Saxon, 


sinister 


Modem German, 


schwesier 



Two of the roots already alluded to in these family relations 
have other English derivatives. From ^ duh, to draw out, 
to pull, to milk, comes — 

Gothic, tiuh-an 

Old Saxon, tioh-an 

Old Frisian, ) 

y tog- a 
Old Low German, J 

Anglo-Saxon, teon 

English, tug, also dug, (for a teat) 



81 

The High German substitutes the aspirate for the tenuis 
and it becomes zieh-en, anciently ziuh-an, to draw or pull. 

From the same root comes the Latin duc-o, the primary 
meaning of which is to draw. 

" Quo sequar, quo duels nunc me ? " 

Plau. Bac. t 3. 3. 2. 

So the derivatives ductilis, ducto, ductarius, dec, all refer to 
drawing rather than leading, which is the secondary meaning. 

We have in English many words through this channel ; 
duct, ductile, ductility, conduct, con-duce, re-duce, dec. 

The root *T bhri or bhar, from which brother is derived, 

a, 

has many other derivatives both in our own and the kindred 
languages. 

Greek, <pep-oj, tyopioj, Qopog 

Latin, fer-o,fer-re, to bear 

for-tis, that which will bear, strong 

fer-tilis,) . • 

y bearing iruit 
fer-ax, ) 

Our derivatives from this classic source are not numerous, 

but we have fertile, fertility, fertilize, dec. According to the 

law so often quoted the radical becomes in Gothic bair-an, 

with a large number of compounds and secondary forms. 

Old Saxon, ber-an, giberan 

Anglo-Saxon, ber-an 

Swedish, bdr-a 

Danish, bcer-e 

In the Old German, following the law, it is per-an, now 
softened down to gebahren. In all the languages it is also 
employed in the sense of bearing fruit, and bearing children. 
From the same source comes burden, that which is borne. 
As a secondary meaning it takes the sense of raising up, 
elevating; hence "berg" a hill, mountain; Anglo-Saxon, 
byrian, originally to raise up, from which our word to bury, 
now meaning to put in the ground, but originally to raise a 



82 



mound or harrow over the deceased. A further meaning is 
that of protection connected with elevation; Anglo-Saxon — 
beorgan, to protect, fortify ; whence byrg, burg, borough, 
a city, the early cities heing usually placed on elevated sites 
for protection — 

The Gothic, bringan, braht 

German, bringen 

Anglo-Saxon, bringan 
are also derived from the same root in the sense of carrying. 
U dhru, to stand firm 
6th class Parasmai dhruvami, dhruvasi, dhruvati 
From this idea of standing firm comes the Greek fyvg, oak 
tree ; Camhri dri, oak, hence the term dru-id for the Celtic 
priests whose worship was connected with groves. 



Gothic, 


triu, tree 


Old Low German, 


tre 


Swedish, 


trd 


Danish, 


tra 


Hollandish, 


tere 


Anglo-Saxon, 


treon 


" English, 


tree 


Old English, 


treen, made of wood 




trivet, a wooden bolt, now con- 




tracted to " rivet " 


In this sense the term does not 


exist in the High German 


branch. 




In the secondary sense of sure, certain, fixed, true, it has a 


wider range — 




Sanskrit, ^ dhruva, certain, sure 


Lithuanian, 


dru-tas, firm 


Gothic, 


trau-an, to trust 




trau-ains, confidence 


Old High German, 


truen 


Modern German, 


trau-en, to trust 




treu, faithful 




trosten, to comfort, &c. 



83 

Old Low German, tru-a 

Old Frisian, triu-we, trow- a 

Swedish, tro, faithful 

o 

trost, bold 

o 

trosta, to dare 

Danish, troe 

Hollandish, troww 

Anglo-Saxon, treow-ian, to trust, confide 

treow-fcest, faithful 
treowth, truth 
truw-a, a treaty 

In English, we have from the root in this sense, truth, 
true, trow, troth, truism, &c, truce, trust, tryst, trusty, 
trustee, and their compounds. 

Perhaps the wonderful fertility of a single root cannot be 
better exhibited than in one with which I shall conclude. 

^m lubh, to desire, covet, allure. 
4th class Parasmai lubhyami, lubhyasi, lubhyati. 
The Greek possesses no remains of this root. 

In Latin we have — 

lubens, willingly, with pleasure. 

lub-et, or Ubet, to be disposed. 

lub-itum, or libitum, at pleasure. 

lub-ido, or libido, desire, lust. 
Lith. liib-ju, to desire. 
Slav, liub-iti, to love. 
The Teutonic tongues are the most prolific. 
Gothic, liub-an, to love 

liub-s, dear. 
Old Low German, liuf-r 
Old Saxon, liqf, lief, gi-lob-ian 

Old Frisian, liqf 

Hollandish. liev-en, lief. 

Old High German, liub-an, lieb-en 



84 

Modern German, lieb-en, lieb-e 
Swedish, ljuf, lyuj-lig 

Icelandic, liuf-r 

Anglo-Saxon, lufan, leqf-lic 

In English we have love, lover, lovely, loveless, loveliness, 
with various compounds. So far extends the primary 
meaning. 

There is another group of words, the connection of which 
with this root is not so obvious, but of which the examination 
will reward research. 

The derivation of the English word believe has hitherto 
been an unsettled question with etymologists. Its equivalents 
in the cognate dialects are as follow — 

Gothic, laubjan, galaubjan 

Old High German, laubjan 

Modern German, glauben, er-lauben 

Danish, lov, love 

Hollandish, ge-loov-en 

Old Low German, leyf-a 

Anglo-Saxon, lyj-an, ge-lyfan 

Johnson simply refers the word to the Anglo-Saxon gelyfan, 

w r hich is perfectly correct so far as it goes. Richardson 

enters into a much more elaborate inquiry. He says — "The 

etymologists do not attempt to account for this important 

word. It is undoubtedly formed from the Dutch leven, 

German leben, Anglo-Saxon lifian, be-lifian, Gothic Ulan, 

'vivere,' to live or be-live, to dwell. Live or leve are used 

indifferently by old writers, whether to denote vivere or 

credere." Amongst others he gives the following examples 

from Robert of Gloucester — 

" He bi-leude without the town, and in wel grete fere." 
Here bi-leve is to live, or continue to live, to dwell. 

In the following 

* * " hys soule for to amende 

That rygt bi-leue hym tagte and gef him Cristendom," 



85 

the meaning is, taught him to live rightly ; taught him a rule 
by which to hy-leve or to live ; and gave him Christendom or 
Christianity — made known to him the life of Christ, how he 
be-leved or lived — as told in the gospels of Christ. 
In the following, from Piers Ploughman s Vision — 
" Werfore be het the elemens, to helf you, alle tymes 
And bring forth youre bylive, bothe lynnen and wollen." 

" To bring forth your bylive" is to bring forth that by 
which you may live. 

To believe, then, is — to live by, or according to, to abide 
by ; to guide, conduct, regulate, govern or direct the life by ; 
to take, accept, assume, or adopt as rule of life ; and, conse- 
quently — to think, deem, or judge right ; to be firmly per- 
suaded of, to give credit to ; to trust, or think trustworthy ; 
to have or give faith or confidence ; to confide, to think or 
deem faithful." So far Dr. Richardson. 

I have made this extract at some length for the purpose of 
exhibiting the present condition of the science of English 
etymology; and the utter absence of sound principle in pur- 
suing the inquiry. Where a word actually exists in Anglo- 
Saxon (which is only another name for the older form of our 
own tongue), the natural and obvious course would be to carry 
back the analysis as far as possible by comparison with cog- 
nate languages until a common root be reached from which 
the various forms have diverged, instead of which we find 
fanciful conjectures as to the origin, in a later age, of a word 
co-eval with the existence of the language itself. 

The analogies relied on by Dr. Richardson are without 
foundation. The remark that " live or leve, be or bi-leve, are 
used indifferently by old writers, whether to denote vivere or 
credere " is not borne out by the examples given. 

In the first passage given above, from Robert of Gloucester, 
" He bi-leude without the town, &c," the word bi-leude is an 
inflexion of the Anglo-Saxon belifan, " to remain," and 



means, " he remained or stayed " outside the town, &c. Two 
other quotations given from the same author, present the 
same word with the same meaning. 

The Scottish dialect still preserves a reminiscence of this 

verb — 

" Belyve the elder bairns come drapping in." 

Cotter's Saturday Night. 

Chaucer uses the word in the same seuse. In the " Story 
of Cambuscan bold," Canace, recounting her sorrows, says — 
" Swiche barme I felt, for he ne might by-leve, 
So on a day, of me he took his leve." 

A similar instance occurs in " Troilus and Creseide," 
Book III, 624. 

The corresponding term is found in the Gothic of the 4th 
century. 1st Thessalonians, iv, 15 — 

" We who are alive and remain." 

" Veis thai libandans jah oilaibidans." 

Also in Francic of the 9th Century — 
" Balo ther uns klibit 

Joh leidor nu bilibit." 
The evil (bale) cleaves to us, 
And tbe pain now remains. 

Otfrid. Evang., Lib. II, ch. vi, 72. 
In the quotation from Piers Ploughman, the word by- 
lyve means sustenance, food and clothing, as in the following 
passages not quoted hy Eichardson — 

" And some he kennede craft and konnynge of sight, 
With sellynge and buggynge, hir bilijve to wynne." 

Vision v, 13425. 
" That thow toke to thi bilyve, to clothes and to sustenaunce."- 

Vision 13939. 
The word is from bi-libban, to live by, but has not the re- 
motest connexion with belief. 

In the second passage from Robert of Gloucester — 
"That rygt bi-leue him tagte, &c." 
and in the remainder of the quotations the word is simply the 
modern belief disguised under the antique spelling. 






87 

The irregularity and uncertainty of mediaeval orthography, 
frequently confounded words quite distinct in their origin and 
meaning. This was not that the same word was intended to 
be employed in different senses, but that words radically 
distinct, in the absence of any orthographical system, were 
frequently expressed by the same letters. In Piers Plough- 
mans Vision, the words leven to leave, leven to dwell, 
remain, and leven to believe, are all spelled alike, but that 
they are really different words, and not mere accommodations 
of the same expression, is evident from the fact of the pre- 
terite of the first being lafte* of the second lefte,\ and of 
the third leved, leveden.% 

If Dr. Kichardson were correct in his deviation of believe, 
belief, from by and life or live, i.e., that which we live by or 
the by-life, it must have originated since the use of modern 
English, as no such compound exists in Anglo-Saxon, whilst 
the actual word itself ge- leaf a, ge-leafan, sometimes spelt ge- 
lefa, ge-lyfan, was in common use. The difference in the 
prefix between the Anglo-Saxon ge-leafa and the modern 
be-lief is unimportant. The same change has taken place 
with many other words ; bethink, Anglo-Saxon gethencan ; 
betoken, Anglo-Saxon getmcnan ; besmear, Anglo-Saxon ges- 
smerian ; besprinkle, Anglo-Saxon gesprengen. 

It may be remarked that the English words belief, believe, 
and their foreign congeners are purely Teutonic, no cognate 
terms being met with in any of the other branches of the 
Aryan family. 

* " For confort of his confessour contricion he lafte." 

Vision 14666. 
t " There is more pryve pryde 
In Prechoures hertes, 
Than there lejte in Lucifere." 



} " Tho that me lovede 

And leved in my comynge.' 



Creed 743, 



Vision 12890. 



88 

Wachter derives the German form glauben from lauben, 
which he says, " Proprie est manu apprehendere, a law,* 
manus, et simile Attico Xafieiv. Dicitur autem allegorice 
de fiducia, quia manus ab antiquo fidei data? et acceptee 
symbolum fuit." 

It is sufficient to remark on this etymology that the oldest 
form of the German is laubjan, a derivative from another 
verb, and that the forms in the cognate languages of equal 
antiquity with the German, give no indications of the deriva- 
tion to which he alludes. 

Skinner derives the Anglo-Saxon word geleafan from the 
particle ge, and lyfan, to grant, allow, " concedere." 

The origin and history of these terms may be briefly stated 
as follows. In the Gothic language, which is peculiarly valu- 
able from its shewing changes in progress which are only 
found in their completed results in the sister tongues, the 
verb liuban, to love, makes its preterite lauf, lubun. From 
this, by adding the suffix jan, a secondary verb laubjan, with 
the usual intensive prefix, ga-laubjan is formed. This ex- 
tends the original meaning of preference, desire, to that of 
trust, reliance, and then, of faith, belief. Thus in Luke xvi, 
11, " Who will commit to your trust the true riches?" the 
Gothic version expresses it " thata sunjeino was izvis galau- 
beith ? " Eomaos x, 11, " Whosoever believeth on him shall 
not be ashamed." Gothic, " wazuh sa galaubjands du imma 
ni gaaiviskoda." In this the Gothic follows exactly the 
7narrev(o of the original Greek, which similarly combines the 
two shades of meaning. 

The Gothic galaubjan became contracted into the German 
glauben, and the parallel forms quoted above are merely dia- 
lectic variations. The double sense of trust and belief is well 
shewn in the following passage from the Anglo-Saxon version 
of the Gospels. Matthew ix, 2, " And Jesus seeing their 

* Scottish " loof" 



89 

faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, 
(Greek dapaet, Latin confide) thy sins be forgiven thee." 
Anglo-Saxon, " Tha geseah se Hoeland heora geleafan, and 
cwoeth to tham iaman, Sa beam gelyfe, the beoth thine synna 
forgyfene." 

This derivation of belief from love is admitted by several 
recent etymologists of high authority. Gabelentz and Loebe 
and Diefenbach, place the words according to this derivation. 
Junius connects the English believe with Gothic galaubjan, 
but pursues the analysis no farther. 

It is difficult to resist the feeling of a close etymological 
connexion between the words live and love, German leben 
and lieben, Gothic Hub an and liban, Anglo-Saxon lybban or 
leofian, and lufian. This resemblance runs through all the 
Teutonic languages. These forms with the exception of a few 
words in Latin are not found in the other branches of the 
family. 

This connexion was not unperceived by our older philolo- 
gists. Junius on the word live observes, " plures petierunt 
ex lieben amare, diligere, quod miseris mortalibus nihil vita, 
carius." Should this speculation prove correct, that live, 
love, and believe, are derived from the same original, it gives 
a remarkable illustration of the simplicity of the ancient 
roots, and of their vital power in expanding and giving bodily 
form to the ever widening demands of the human mind. 

I must here bring these remarks to a close. I have brought 
under notice a mere fragment of a wide field which lies open 
for exploration, and in which patient study will produce 
results of a very important nature as regards English etymo- 
logy. When the study of the Sanskrit roots shall have been 
thoroughly and systematically worked out, the philology of 
the Aryan tongues in general will assume a character of 
accuracy and science which it has never yet attained. 

In our own tongue this is peculiarly important. The Eng- 



90 



lish language, in one respect, may be said to be unique. We 
have seen that there are two divergent channels along which 
derivatives from the original roots have descended to 
modern times. I have called these the Classical and the 
Teutonic. Some roots have followed the one course and 
others the other ; many have been transmitted to us through 
both. The mixed character of modern English speech has been 
sometimes represented as a defect, but there was never a greater 
mistake. The two streams, descending from long remote ages, 
have united on English ground, and nowhere else, and have 
imparted to our tongue a strength and vigour, combined with 
a richness and fertility, which have never been surpassed in 
the world's history, and which render it unrivalled amongst 
modern languages as a vehicle for thought. I shall be glad 
if any remarks of mine may have given an impulse, however 
feeble, to an inquiry of the most interesting character, and 
which will well repay research. 



ON THE 



PHILOLOGY 



ARCHITECTURAL TERMS 



READ BEFORE THE 



LIVEEPOOL AECHIIECTlTtAL AOT) AKCftEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 

1864. 



We are so accustomed to the sound of the terms in ordinary- 
use in our profession, that we seldom call to mind that they 
are not mere arbitrary words coined for the purposes to which 
they are applied, but that they have each a history of their 
own, always interesting, and frequently very instructive. The 
history of words is the history of things. Language is the 
stratification in which the thoughts, feelings, wants, inven- 
tions, and daily life of humanity in all time lie imbedded, and 
the exploration of which throws a wonderful light on the 
condition and progress of the human race, even far beyond 
the period to which written history can carry us. Just as the 
fossil remains in the different geological formations indicate 
the comparative age and the condition of things at the time 
of their deposition, so the evidence which words present in 
their derivation, etymology, time of appearance and applica- 
tion, is frequently of the utmost value in determining the 
history of any art, in its origin progress and condition at 
any period amongst any people. I propose in the present 
paper to follow this method of inquiry into the origin and 
history of architectural terms. Though I cannot, within the 
necessary limits, pursue it to any great extent, I think the 
subject will be found not devoid of interest. I confine my- 
self of course to the terms employed at the present day in our 
own tongue. 

I will first call attention to the general terms " building " 
and " architecture." In its present application building 
occupies aesthetically a lower position than architecture, the 
former meaning with us simple construction, whilst the latter 
is understood to indicate something in addition in the nature 
of design. Such was not the case originally. The words 



92 



come down to us from different sources, and have in the course 
of their transmission completely changed their primitive 
signification. 

The original word for building and construction in our 
Anglo-Saxon mother tongue is timbrian, which has its 
equivalent in every Teutonic dialect : — 

Gothic, t'mrjan. 

Swedish, timbra. 

Old High German, zimbaron. 

Modern German, zimmern. 

HolL, timmeren. 

This did not originally signify necessarily wooden con- 
struction, but was applied to every material indifferently. 
Thus in Ephes. ii. 20-22, " built upon the foundation of the 
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner stone," &c, the Gothic version employs the words 
anatimridai, gatimrjo, gatimridai, as equivalents to the Greek 
oiKolojxeiv. So in the Anglo-Saxon version, Markxiii. 1, "Mas- 
ter, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here ! " 
Lareow ! loca hwylce stanas her synd, and hwylce getim- 
brunga thyses temples ! As, however, wood was the principal 
material employed by our ancestors for building during the 
Saxon period, timber and wood became in time synonymous 
terms. 

To build originally meant to form, shape, fashion, design. 

Anglo-Saxon, Byldan. 
O. H. G., Bildon. 

In modern German it has retained this meaning exclusively, 
and is applied both to sculpture and painting. Iu our own 
tongue, from being applied to the ornamental portion of the 
wooden structures, it gradually extended itself to the general 
construction, and superseded the ancient timbrian. 

The modern term architecture, which has sprung up since 
the revival of classical literature, and can hardly be traced 
further back than the time of Milton, was originally applied 









93 

to simple building. The Sanskrit root tvacJi, to cover, is found 
in one form or other in all the Aryan tongues. 
Greek, reKriou. 
Latin, teyo. 
Old German, dakjan, whence dach a roof, and deck, the cover- 
ing of a ship. 
Anglo-Saxon, theccan, to cover, whence thatch, a straw roof. 

The Greek tektmv was the carpenter who framed the roof, 
apXtTEKTuv was the chief of the workmen. The word is first 
used by Herodotus, but rather in the sense of engineer than 
of artistic designer. It is afterwards employed by Plato, and 
along with Greek art was borrowed by the Bomans, from 
whom, principally through the treatise of Vitruivus, we have 
derived it, and brought it into general use with its modern 
acceptation. 

Let us now take for illustration the different parts of an 
ordinary dwelling, and inquire what light is thrown upon their 
history by the etymology of the terms employed. The method 
I propose to pursue is the following. We know that our own 
tongue is intimately connected with all the Teutonic and 
Norse dialects, and more remotely with the other languages 
of Europe. There must have been a time before the separa- 
tion took place when one common language was spoken, and 
a state of the arts very similar prevailed amongst all. Now 
we find some building terms common to all the Teutonic 
nations. These it must be obvious represent a state of things 
existing previous to their separation. Other terms are differ- 
ent in the cognate tongues, but are self-originated. This it 
may fairly be inferred indicates progression in each nation 
independent of foreign aid. Other terms again are evidently 
borrowed from foreign sources, and by tracing these to their 
origin, we can in many cases ascertain the source of the 
improvement and the period of its adoption. 

The word house, in the sense of habitation, is identical in 
all the Teutonic and Norse tongues, varied slightly in form. 



94 

A similar word exists in some of the Slavonian dialects. The 
radical is not found either in Greek or Sanskrit. It is 
impossible, therefore, to ascertain any leading idea in the root 
beyond its uniform meaning of a dwelling place. The Latin 
casa there can be no doubt is a congenital term, the guttural 
in Latin being equivalent to the aspirate in the Gothic. 
Casa meant a hut or cottage. Caesar describes the cottages 
of the Gauls as being thatched with straw. " Casas quae 
more Gallico strumentis erant tectae." 

The door is still wider in its use. We trace it in the San- 
skrit duara, Greek $vpa, Latin for -is, Persian der, Slavonic 
doer, Hib. dor, Cymric dor, Old German daur } Anglo-Saxon 
duru, &c. 

This term also like house seems to be itself a root, since 
no more elementary radical can be found from which it can 
have been derived. 

The original meaning of the term wall was an earthen 
mound, Latin vallum. The word does not seem to be indi- 
genous in the language. The corresponding term in German is 
maur. Both are probably derived from the Latin, vallum and 
murus, the former not unlikely through the Cambrian gwall. 

If the term wall is not indigenous we cannot expect to find 
the materials of which it is constructed of native growth. 

Stone is a word found in all the Teutonic tongues. Its 
primitive signification is that of rock, the original root being 
found in the Sanskrit stlia, indicating stability — the absence 
of motion. Its application to separate fragments is a secon- 
dary meaning of later date. 

The word brick is not found in Anglo-Saxon, nor is it 
found in German aneient or modern. It has been attempted 
by some etymologists to derive this word from brechan, 
Latin frang-o, Sansk. bhranj to break. Mr. Hensleigh 
Wedgwood says* " The radical meaning is simply a bit, a 

* Diet, of Eng. Etymology, vol. i., 234. 



95 

fragment, being one of the numerous words derived from break. 
Anglo-Saxon brice, fragment, hlafes bn'ce, a bit of bread." 
There is not the slightest evidence to sustain this statement, 
whereas the regular descent of the term from a Sanskrit root 
through the Greek and Latin is clear and obvious. Imber 
in Latin means rain, whence Imbrex (imbrics) a pantile. 
From the roofing tile the word was next applied to the layers 
of flat tiles in the Roman walls. In low and mediaeval Latin, 
brica signifies both tile and brick, the bricks of that period 
being little thicker than tiles. From brica came the French 
bri'jue, which in Cotgrave's day signified a flat plate of any 
kind, as well as a brick, and so from the French it passed 
with many other building terms into our own language. It 
is confirmatory of this view that the word has never been 
naturalised in German; mauer-stein, literally wall-stone, 
doing duty for it. Had it been derived from brechen, there 
seems no assignable reason why the Germans should not have 
adopted it instead of expressing the idea by a circumlocution. 

Mortar again is not an indigenous term. There is no 
equivalent for it in Anglo-Saxon, and in German the Latin 
name has had to be borrowed, slightly changed in form. 
Mortarium originally meant a vessel in which ingredients 
were braised, as we now employ the term in one sense. It 
was then transferred to the large hole or basin in which lime 
and sand were mixed. So it is employed by Vitruvius (book 7, 
chap 3), " mortario collocato calce et arena ibi confusa," &c. 
By a natural metonymy, the word came to mean the materials 
bruised and mixed up in the mortarium, and is so also 
employed by Vitrurius (book 8, chap. 7), " mortario caBmentum 
addatur," &c. The term has continued in use down to the 
present time, passing into the French mortier, German mbrtel, 
and English mortar. 

The term cement has undergone a singular transformation 
from its original meaning, and presents a good specimen of 



96 

the natural mode by which words gradually slide out of their 
primary signification into something quite different. Ccemen- 
tum, more commonly used in the plural ccementa, meant 
originally in Latin rubble stone as it came from the quarry. 
Vitruvius (book 2, chap. 7), speaks of quarries — " de quibus 
et quadrata saxa, et ccementorum ad aedihcia eximuntur copiae." 
Although somewhat of a digression, I cannot help calling 
attention to another passage in the same book containing very 
sound advice as to this subject of stone. " Cum aedificandum 
fuerit, ante biennium ea saxanon hyeme sed aestate eximantur 
et jacentia permaneant in locis patentibus ; quae autem a 
tempestatibus eo biennio tacta, laesa fuerint, ea in fundamenta 
conjiciantur : coetera quae non erunt vitiata, ab natura rerum 
probata durare poterunt supra terrain aedificata : nee solum ea 
in quadratis lapidibus sunt observanda, sed etiam in ccemen- 
titiis structuris." " When you are about to build, let the 
stone be quarried two years beforehand, not in the winter but 
in summer, and let it be laid out in an open place. That 
which after two years' exposure to the weather is found injured, 
may be used up in the foundations. The rest which is not 
injured by this test, will probably be found durable when built 
above ground. These rules are to be observed not only for 
hewn stone, but even for rubble constructions." If these 
simple precautions of the old Eoman architect were more 
attended to in modern times, we should have fewer instances 
of beautiful masonry crumbling away almost before the 
structure is completed. 

To return, however, to our cement. From rubble stone, 
ccetnentum was applied to marble chippiugs, which were 
ground up and mixed with lime and sand for plastering, (see 
Vitr. b,.ok 7, chap. 6). During the middle ages cement are 
meant to build ; earner? tar ias was the name of a walling 
mason. It is so used in a document of the date A.D. 1106. 
But as most of the thick walls in the castle building period 



• 97 

were cored with rubble grouting, the cementum gradually 
came to mean the plastic material which formed the matrix. 
In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, published in the early part 
of the seventeenth century, the French cement or ciment is 
thus explained* — " A strong and cleaving morter, made (for 
the most part) of tyles, potshards, glasse, flint, the drosse of 
yron, &c, beaten to dust, and incorporated with lime, oyle, 
grease, rozen and water. 1 ' The word now has come to mean 
in general parlance any plastic substance which unites two 
hard bodies. As a building term it is almost exclusively con- 
fined to the so-called Roman cement, which owes its hydraulic 
properties to the combination of lime with iron, silica, and 
alumina. 

Lime is another name for building material which has 
equally departed from its original meaning, but in an oppo- 
site direction. The root is indigenous in all the Teutonic 
tongues, and is found in the Latin Lim-us. Its primitive 
meaning is clay, mud, slime, anything sticky or adhesive. 
We have retained it in that sense in the w r ord birdlime. In 
the other languages it has never changed its meaning, but in 
English it has come to mean the solid mineral which is cal- 
cined forjmortar. The course of the change appears to have 
been scmewhat as follows. Our early ancestors plastered up 
the intervals of their wooden framed houses with reeds, and 
clay which was then called lime. When a better mode of 
building was introduced by the use of proper mortar, the 
ingredient which gave plasticity and adhesiveness to the 
mixture, retained the old name as a matter of convenience, 
which led to its application to the solid stone from which it is 
derived. Amongst our Teutonic brethren on the Continent 
the case was a little different. Like ourselves they borrowed 
the term mortar or mortel from the French or from the low 
Latin, but the plastic ingredient was called kalk, Latin cal.r, 
French chaux, A. S. cealc, which originally signified chalk, 



98 * 

but in most European languages, except English, now means 
stone-lime. 

Sand is an indigenous word found in all the Teutonic 
languages. 

We have completed our survey of the wall and its materials, 
let us now look at the window. This is one of those terms 
which is not primitive, but which each nation has either 
formed for itself or borrowed from its neighbours. In Gothic 
the window is called auga daur, eye-door. In old Norse it 
is glasr-glugg, light-hole. In old German it is tag loch, which 
has the same signification. In old Saxon it is eagh-ittyrl, 
eye-hole ; wind-uga the eye or hole for the wind, has been 
softened into the modern window, and gives but a miserable 
idea of the abodes of our early ancestors, who had either to 
sit in darkness or be exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather. 

Sill — door-sill, window-sill. This is an indigenous term, 
Anglo-Saxon syl, Ger. said, French seueil, which is doubtless 
akin with the Lat. sol-am, meaning the plate on the ground. 

Another name for a door-sill, threshold, was probably first 
applied to the log placed across the barn door to prevent the 
grain and straw from being driven outside. It does not exist 
in the kindred tongues. 

Lintel is of French derivation ; Lat. limen, limentellum. 
It is not found in German or Norse. 

We now come to the roof. This important part of a 
dwelling must have existed from the earliest period, and must 
have had a common name amongst all the congenital tribes. 
We find it in the Greek rUnov, Latin tectum, Ger. dach, 
decke, Norse tak, Anglo-Saxon thece, whence our thatch. The 
framework of the roof has taken different names in different 
languages, the English having a vocabulary of its own. Eoof 
is the Anglo-Saxon hrof from hroefnan to uphold, support. 

The term gable originally meant anything in a furcated 



99 

form, arid was applied in Anglo-Saxon, gaflas, both to the 
main rafters of a building and to the gallows, which is merely 
a modification of the same word. It is found in Gothic gihla, 
Swedish gaffwel, German gibel, in the same sense as our 
gable. 

The rafters are the supporters, Anglo-Saxon rcefter, from 
roefnian, to bear. 

In the word eaves we have a curious reminiscence of the 
original thatched roof. The Anglo-Saxon efesian means to 
shear, to cut even, to shave. Efese was the lower edge of the 
thatch clipped straight and even. 

The word thatch, as I bave already explained, means simply 
covering ; but from the prevalence of straw roofs in the 
Anglo-Saxon period, it has now become limited to that 
description of covering. 

Tile is of comparatively late introduction, though found in 
Anglo-Saxon. It is derived from Latin tegula, either through 
Ger. tig el or French tuile 

Slate as a covering is not found in iVnglo-Saxon, but the 
word is indigenous, being derived from slitan, German schlit- 
zen, to rend assunder, to split. Its earliest appearance is 
about the time of Wickliffe, the middle of the fourteenth 
century. 

The ridge sufficiently explains itself. Let us now turn to 
the inside of the habitation. 

The halL which in one shape or another has formed a por- 
tion of the dwelling in every age, was, in Anglo-Saxon times, 
the domicile itself, any other apartments being merely ad- 
juncts. Tbe origin of the term is somewhat obscure. It is 
usually derived from lielan, Ger. hiilleii, to cover, meaning a 
covered room. Spelman and Ducange connect it with haltus 
" Ramus Siccus," as if the covering were originally brush- 
wood. It might seem at first sight that hall had some 
connection with Greek aiAj?, Lat. aula, but in reality it is not 



100 

so, these being represented by GcLh. a/hs, Anglo-Saxon alh, 
Old Ger. alah, words now lost, which signified a temple or 
palace. 

The word jlonr signifies simply the ground or soil, which 
constituted in the clays of our early forefathers the only pave- 
ment, as it does to this day in many an Irish cabin. 

The word hearth, with slight modifications, is common to 
all the Teutonic family. It signified originally a flat place in 
the centre of the room on which the fire was made. .In the 
Gospel of St. John xviii. 18, where it states they " made a fire 
of coals for it was cold," the Gothic version translates, 
" haurja vaurkj an clans, unte cald vas." In a damp, cold 
climate like that of England the associations of warmth and 
comfort connected with the hearth have elevated it to a posi- 
tion where its humble origin is forgotten.* 

The chimney is an exotic in all modern languages, 
neither the thing nor the word having been known until the 
twelfth century. The word is derived through the French 
cheminee, Italian camino, Lat. caminus, from the Greek 
Ka/x~tvoQ, a furnace, which of necessity had a pipe or flue con- 
nected with it. 

We have now arrived at a point when, from the distinct 
and clear evidence of philology, we can form a tolerably correct 
notion of a dwelling house of the time of the Saxon Hep- 
tarchy, which would not materially differ from those of a 
much earlier period, nor from those of the succeeding three 
centuries. The building was erected of wooden framework, 
the instertices fitted in with wattle work plastered with clay. 
The roof was constructed with the forked gaffwella or ribs in 
pairs, and covered with straw there or thatch, which had its 
evese or eaves neatly shaved and tiimmed. It had a dura or door 

* In Anglo Saxon, a settled householder was called heorlh-fcest, or hearth -fast, 
in contradistinction from a lover class called folyeras or Jolc. Heortk-werod, 

hearth-people, were the family, the dependants. Heorth-svucepe, a bridesmaid, 
one that swept the hearth. 



101 

with its posts and syl. Within, the Jior was the bare earth. 
In the centre of the /wall or hall, as the interior was called, 
was the heorth on which the fire was made, the smoke of 
which went out through a hole in the roof, of which the 
Saxon name does not survive, but which was probably the 
original wind-oga or wind's eye. 

This was really the entire construction of the primitive 
Teutonic lias or house, to which was subsequently added the 
window and its wooden shutter. In a wretched, comfortless 
abode like this, superior in no respect except that of size to 
the hut of the New Zealander, it is difficult to imagine a 
people, speaking essentially the same language with ourselves, 
possessing the rudimentary principles of the same order and 
freedom of which we boast, and though unlettered and igno- 
rant, endowed with faculties which were soon to develope 
into a glorious future. Such, however, was undoubtedly the 
fact. The halls or palaces of the Anglo-Saxon kings, though 
larger in size, were constructed on the same principles and 
with the same materials. 

This rude exposed condition of the Saxon hall is well 
illustrated by the speech of the old sage to Edwin, king of 
Northumbria, in 625 A.D., when the question in debate was 
the acceptation or rejection of Christianity. He said, " The 
life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that 
which is hidden from us, to be like the sparrow, who in the 
winter time as you sit in your hall with your thanes and 
attendants, warmed with the fire which is lighted in the midst, 
rapidly flies through to seek shelter from the chilling storms 
of rain and snow without. As he flies through, entering by 
one door and passing out at another, he has a brief escape 
from the storm and enjoys a momentary calm. Again he 
goes forth to another winter and vanishes from your sight. 
So also seems the short life of man." 

At this early period separate sleeping chambers were un- 



102 

known. In the poem of Beowulf, all the warriors sleep on 
the hall floor round the hearth. This practice of one general 
sleeping apartment was continued down to a comparatively- 
late period. In several of Chaucer's tales, the family and the 
guests, male and female indiscriminately, sleep in the same 
apartment, though in separate beds* 

We may now trace the progress of improvement by the 
derivation of the terms gradually introduced into architectural 
nomenclature. We have already seen that even the term ivall 
is not native Anglo Saxon ; that mortar aod cement are im- 
ported words as well as things, and that lime has completely 
changed its meaning in accommodation to improved methods 
of construction. One of the first improvements in the Anglo- 
Saxon house was the construction of an upper chamber with 
a boarded floor. This seems to have been an indigenous 
improvement, as the terms employed are partly of native 
origin. The chamber was called the solere, and in the middle 
ages the solar or soller. The term seems to apply to the 
separate floor, from the old German si/le/?, Goth, suljan, to 
stand upon. The apartment under the solere was called the 
cellar, Ger. keller, French cellier, and was used for keeping 
provisions and stores, entering from the outside. The deriva- 
tion may be from Old Ger. keie a hollow place, but has more 
probably descended through the French from the Latin cella 
a storeroom or granary. There is some confusion in the use 
of these terms owing to their similarity in sound, Cotgrave 
on the word " celier," explains it " A sellar, or more properly 

* The same model of habitation prevailed through all the Teutonic and Norse 
tribes. Mr. Dasent in the story of Burnt Njal, gives a description of the Ice- 
landic skali or hall of tbe tenth century, which corresponds in its main features 
with what has been already stated. The homestead of the Icelanders consisted 
of one main apartment in which the family lived by day and slept at night. In 
the abodes of chiefs this building was huge but rude. Down the middle were 
the hearths with holes in the roof above to let out the smoke Along the sides 
were ranged the sleeping places, those of the females separated at one end. 
Between the hearths and the walls were ranges of tables, with a raised dais 
across one end. Outbuildings for cattle and stores were erected in communication 
with the main building. 



103 

a roome above-ground, to lay wine in ; for your vault under- 
ground is better expressed by cave." Sailer, he explains, 
" a sellar or low garner ; also as planeher." The former 
meaning is evidently a mistake ; the latter exactly explains the 
soller or upper room in the old English houses. 

From j)i 'an che comes the English word plank, which, as we 
have the native word board to express the same idea, is used 
to signify a thicker piece of timber. Board, Anglo-Saxon lord, 
Goth, baurd, had a very wide meaning amongst our ancestors. 
In addition to its primary signification it was used for a table 
and a shield. Bord thece was a boarded roof, the first attempt 
at a ceiling. 

This word ceiling, in our use of it, seems so naturally derived 
from caelum, heaven, the sky, that it disturbs our sense of* 
propriety to throw any doubt on the connexion, yet truth 
compels us to assign to it a very different derivation. Indeed , 
a moment's reflection will serve to cast a doubt on the usually 
assigned orign of the term. It is quite consistent and appro- 
priate as applied to the ceiling of a room, but its relevancy 
entirely disappears when we speak of the ceiling of a ship. The 
fact is, the spelling has been altered to suit a fancied con- 
nexion with the French ciel. The old German sulen, as we 
have already seen, means to board or plank, and was repre- 
sented by syll, syllan in Anglo-Saxon. Down to the end 
of the 1 7th century, the word was spelled seeling or sieling. 
In Barker's Bible, ed. 1610, Jer. 22 v. J4, we read, "he 
will make himselfe large windowes and sieling with cedar." 
In Sherwood's " English and French Dictionary," 1650, the 
word ceiling is not found, but seeling he explains by lamb/ is, 
menuiserie. " The upper seeling, of a house," he translates 
sus-lambris. This shews that at that period the word was 
applicable not merely to the summit of a room, but to board- 
ing in general. In Cotgrave's French-English Dictionary, 
1650, the French substantive ciel is translated by " the sky, 



104 

welkin, also the testern of a bed, the canopie that is carried 
over a prince as he walks in state.' The adjective cielin is 
explained as "belonging to the firmament or to a canopy 
testern or upper Heeling" Here the distinction between the 
French and English words is sufficiently marked, the Eng- 
lish seeling requiring to be qualified by the term tipper to 
assimilate it to the French ciel, bat soon after this the con- 
fusion began. In Skinner's " Etymologica Linguae Anglicanse," 
published in 1671, we read — " Seeling vel potius deling, ab 
Italian, cielo, Latin, coelum, quod secondario sensu quemvis 
etiam excelsum fornicem signat ; vel secundum Minshew a 
coelare." The word is here wrongfully identified with the 
French, and has so been considered ever since. 

Ceiling was then in its origin the boarding of the interior 
face of a room, whether sides or top. The corresponding 
French word plancher, which signifies a boarded floor, is used 
for a boarded ceiling also. 

The solar or upper room led to the necessity for stairs. 
This is a pure Anglo-Saxon word, originally stoegers, from 
siigan, to ascend, mount upwards. A boarded floor required 
joists to support it. The derivation of this word is obscure. 
It does not exist in either French or German, and it is diffi- 
cult to trace it satisfactorily to its source. The most plau- 
sible is that from the old French word adjouster, to place in 
order, adjust, but is by no means clear. To boarded walls 
and cielings succeeded the use of plaster, which, internally, 
was not indigenous in this country. The word can be traced 
back through the French p/dtre, plastrer, the Latin plasma, 
to the Greek -rrXaaaio, to form, mould, shape, especially in soft 
substances, such as earth and clay. 

The word beam is an indigenous term, Gothic bagm, Ger- 
man baum. Its original meaning is a tree, thence transferred 
to the trunk, when cut down and employed in building. 

Breast-summer or bressummer is an application of the 



105 

French sommier or main beam, supporting the breast or front 
of a building. 

The word girder is now used for the main timbers of a floor, 
but in its origin it rather meant a tie, from Anglo-Saxon yyr- 
dan to gird, bind round. Most of our modern terms of car- 
pentry, such as tie-beam, rafter, ridge, strutt, king and queen- 
post, valley, wali-plate, pole-plate, sufficiently explain them- 
selves. Hip is probably from Anglo-Saxon keep, fit, as that 
to which the timbers are fitted at the angles. 

The words carpenter, carpentry, are derived from the Latin, 
through the French. Carpentum amongst the old Romans sig- 
nified a two-wheeled cart or carriage reserved exclusively for 
females, probably derived from carpinus, the hornbeam, of 
which timber it might be made ; carpentarius was a carriage 
maker, wheel-wright. In low Latin the terms became applied 
to workers in wood generally. The French have given to 
their word cliarpenie a wider signification than belongs to our 
word carpentry, applying it to framing of iron as well as wood, 
in which generic sense we should find it very useful amongst 
ourselves. 

Most of our terms used in joinery are derived from the 
French, who preceded this country in the art. 

Plane is from planer to smooth. 

Mortise, French mortaise, from mordre, to bite. 

Tenon, from tenir, to hold. 

Rebate or rabbet, from raboter, which, in French, simply 
means to plane, to polish, but in English has acquired the 
further signification of sinking a square check. 

Pannel is derived from the French paneau, which, in its 
turn descends from Latin pannus, Greek ttyivoq. Its original 
meaning is that of a web of cloth, then applied to any flat, 
square surface, cut out or defined. A pane of glass, the 
panel of a door or wainscot, maintain the primitive idea. 
Pan, as a term in carpentry, is derived from French panne 



106 

de boisy which is a secondary application to a scantling cut 
out square. 

Sash window. This is from the French chassis. The 
derivation of this term is somewhat ohscure. Originally, it 
was applied to a wooden frame over which oiled paper or 
linen was stretched in place of glass. (See Fenestre Chas- 
sissee — Ootgrave.) The Latin casses signifies network, 
and it is possible that this may have heen the original of 
chassis. 

Most of the terms of joinery sufficiently explain themselves. 
Stile, rail, molding, frame, lining, casing, "boxing, skirting, 
are mere adaptations of ordinary phraseology. Others, such 
as base and plinth, architrave, torus, &c, are borrowed from 
the terms in classical architecture. 

I have called attention to the nomenclature of the different 
parts of a house ; let us now glance at the terms employed in 
sacred architecture. 

The word church, as applied to the house of God, is derived 
from the Greek to Kvpiatcov, from Kvpwg the Lord, of or belong- 
ing to the Lord, the Lord's house. This term reached the 
Teutonic races through the Greek church. The Latins 
adopted another Greek word ecclesia, used in the New Testa- 
ment to signify the assembly of the faithful rather than the 
place in which they met. This derivation of church has been 
controverted by some etymologists, who connect it with 
Sanskrit /crit/d, a rite, solemnity, ceremony ; others refer it to 
Old German circ, circle, and connect it with the old heathen 
stone circles, but the balance of evidence is very strong in 
favor of the Christian and Greek derivation. 

Of the word chapel there are several alleged derivations. 
According to Ducange and Menage, it derives its origin from 
the legend of St. Martin of Tours, who, on a certain occasion, 
gave away his cloak to a poor man. The ecclesiastical cape, 
or capella, which he wore at the time, was treasured up as a 



107 

sacred relic by Frankish monarchs, who carried it "with them 
to the wars, and kept it in a separate tent. The ecclesiastics 
who had charge of the relics were hence called cappellani, and 
the term capella became gradually transferred to the build- 
ings attached to churches in which the relics were preserved. 
Another derivation, supported by Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood, 
refers it to the term capella, the hood or covering of the altar 
where mass was said, the canopy over the sacred elements, and 
from thence extended to the recess in the church in which the 
altar was placed, forming the capella or chapel of the saint 
to whom the altar was dedicated. Spelman gives a third 
derivation, and all things considered the most probable one. 
The Latin words capsa, capsella, signified a small box or 
coffer for keeping treasures, something like what was subse- 
quently called a " shrine." Transferred to the French lan- 
guage, which usually eliminated the s in the middle of words, 
it became first capella, which is frequently used in early 
documents in the sense of reliquaire ; thence transferred to the 
small building in which the relics were kept and the saint's 
altar erected (chapelle), and finally to any succursal to the 
mother church. The word as now applied to non-conformist 
meeting houses is utterly inappropriate and meaningless. 

The nave is derived from Greek vaog, a temple, more espe- 
cially the inner portion, or cella. It is usual to connect this 
with Latin navis, a ship, from the fancied resemblance of the 
nave of a Gothic building to a ship turned upside down. 
There is, however, not the slightest connexion between the 
words. Navis is derived from no, to swim or float; vcloq 
means originally simply an abode, a dwelling, though, like 
the Latin cedes, applied more especially to the dwelling of the 
gods. 

The aisles are the wings of a church ; French ailes, Latin 
ala. 

The choir or quire, derives its name from the choral ser- 



vice therein performed. It is traceable through the French 
choeur, Latin chorus, to Greek %op6g, which originally signified 
a dance in a ring. To dancing, music and singing were 
afterwards added, out of which arose the Greek tragedy, which 
was at first nothing more than a story told in the intervals of 
the choral performances. In course of time any combination 
of voices in vocal music was called a chorus, which, when 
introduced into the Christian worship, gave its name to the 
part of the building in which it was carried on. 

The chancel is so called from its being screened off from 
the more public part of the church by lattice work, called in 
Latin cancelli. Some of these cancelli worked in marble 
still exist at San Clemente and others of the early Italian 
churches. 

Steeple is a pure Anglo-Saxon word. Stepul, stypel. This 
originally meant any elevated building, as a tower ; clocye 
stypel, a bell tower. This is connected with our word steep, 
meaning anything sheer upright. 

The word tower is usually derived from French tour, Latin 
turris, but the congenital words, Anglo-Saxon torr, German 
tliurm, &c, show that the radical is common to all the 
European languages. 

The word spire has also a double derivation. Kichardson 
derives it through the French spire, Latin spira, to the Greek 
(nrelpa, which originally meant a coil or twist, gradually 
diminishing to a point. This would not apply to a spire in 
an architectural sense, except to such a one as that of the 
Felsen kerke at Copenhagen, which has an external spiral 
stair carried round it to the summit. Nor is the term, in our 
sense, known in French architecture, in which jleclie, cloclier en 
aiguille take the place of our spire. The word, in our sense, 
is pure Teutonic, meaning anything sharp, closely connected 
with spear, Old German sper. 

A large number of terms in ecclesiastical and castellated 



109 

architecture are derived from the French, such as chevron, 
corbel, chamfer, trefoil, quatrefoil, &c, crocket, crenelles, 
embrasures, machicolations, mullions, facade, escutcheon, 
with many others, shewing the source from which progress in 
architecture in England took its rise. The architectural 
vocabulary in England previous to ihe conquest was meagre 
in the extreme. The Gallicised Normans were the great 
builders of their day, and with the art introduced their own 
nomenclature. A fair number of English terms came into 
use in process of time, such as spandrel, buttress, screen, 
severy, shaft, bench, rood-loft, hammer-beam, pier, batter, &c. 

The terms employed in classical architecture, are of compa- 
ratively recent introduction, and have come to us principally 
through the French. 

Cornice, French comiche, Italian cornice, cornicione, Latin 
corona, Greek icopiorig. This word is employed by Vitruvius to 
signify the upper member of the entablature, but it is only an 
adaptation of the word, considerably changed from its primary 
meaning. The root cor, Kop, or koru enters into many combi- 
nations both in the classical and Teutonic languages, always 
with the sense of" crooked," "serrated." Homer employs it 
to designate the beaked prows of the ships, " vrjvtrl icopojvim." 
Theocritus applies it to the crumpled horns of a cow. It is 
used also for a garland or chaplet, and thence transferred to 
the kingly crown. Its original application in architecture would 
appear to have been to a serrated edge or border, probably of 
wood, running along the eaves, of which the Greek antefixes 
seem to be a remini>cence. The ordinary derivation from the 
cornice being the crowning or uppermost member, is not at 
all boras out by the history of the word, which was never 
employed by the ancients in the sense of " summit," as we 
now use it. The original idea is still preserved in the Italian 
cornice, a picture-frame or border. The Latin com-u, Eng- 
lish, horn, German krunim, Sanskrit krun-clia, crooked, are 
traceable to the same root. 



110 

The word frieze is derived from the French /rise, Ital. 
fregio, Latin phrygius, a term applied first to embroidered 
cloth, in which the Phrygians excelled ; thence transferred to 
any sculptured surface. It is not found in Yitruvius, who 
employs instead the word zophorus, Greek faotyopog, which has 
the kindred meaning of " sculpture bearing," especially the 
figures of animals. 

Architrave. This is a curious word of modern origin. 
Vitruvius employs the word epistylium, Greek i-maTvXog, " upon 
the columns " in the same sense. Architrave is found in 
French, Italian and Spanish, but is most probably of French 
origin. John Evelyn, in his essay on Architecture, is some- 
what scandalised at the introduction of the word. He says, 
" The Greeks named that epistylium, which we, from a mon- 
grel compound of two languages (apxn-trabs) called archi- 
trave." This hardly accounts for the origin of the terra 
which has probably arisen from the circumstance that the 
French architects, on the revival of classical architecture, 
finding a difficulty in procuring large stones to reach from 
column to column, formed the epistylium of smaller stones 
put together as a straight arch. This is still practised in 
France at the present clay. Hence the term arche-trave, 
which may mean either " arched beam " or " arched space/' 
from travee, a bay or space between two supports. 

Column, French colour) e, Latin columna. The radical of 
this word is found in culm-us, equivalent to English haulm, 
the stem of a plant; hence oilmen, columen, anything rising 
up to a height, whence columna for an upright prop. 

The word style, derived from the Greek arvXog, rrriiXr), has 
much the same meaning, when applied to the various descrip- 
tions of colonnade. ariiXog signifies an upright post. Our 
word style applied to manner, fashion, mode of writing, is 
derived from Lat. stilus, an iron pen, which Liddell and Scott 
connect with areXe-^og, a stalk. 






Ill 

Base, Greek fiao-ig, is derived from /3a«Vo>, to walk, go, and 
is used by the Greek poets in the sense of the steps by which 
the temples were approached. It is not employed by Vitru- 
vius, who uses the word spira in its place. 

Plinth, ivkivQoQ, originally signified a square brick or tile, 
placed under the upright shaft, thence transferred to the square 
stone which took its place under the column. 

Htylobate, (TTvXofiarrjg, is employed by Plato for the base of 
a column, but by Vitruvius it is used for the substructure or 
pedestal, which sense it still retains. 

Abacus, Greek a/3a£. means a square slab or bearer, and is 
applied by Vitruvius with its modern meaning. 

Torus, Greek ropog, originally meant a boring instrument, 
then it was applied to any thing round in shape, a round pro- 
tuberance or projection, and is applied by Vitruvius in its 
modern sense. 

Astragal, avrpayaXog, is used by Homer for the vertebral 
column ; by Herodotus for the ball of the ankle bone. 
Vitruvius has applied it architecturally to the necking of the 
column. 

Metope, Greek fxero-n-r}. 6-Kr\ signifies opening, hole, and was 
applied to the spaces between the triglyphs, which originally 
represented the ends of the beams. Metope means " within 
the opening," or the space of the opening. 

It would be possible to continue this inquiry to a much 
greater length, but enough has probably been said to shew the 
interest which attaches to the etymology of any art or science. 
Although not essential to the study of architecture, yet the 
knowledge of its history, which may be gleaned from the 
field of its nomenclature, is not without its use. 



J, 



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